Protests by candidates competing for state civil service posts — centred on demands that Maharashtra Public Service Commission chairman Vivek Bhimanwar step down over alleged paper leaks — have placed both the Fadnavis administration and NCP (SP) representative Rohit Pawar, who has taken up the cause in Pune, in an uncomfortable position. Rohit Pawar's demand that Bhimanwar be removed and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's position that no such step would be taken left the two sides without a path toward resolving the agitation, at least as of Sunday evening.
Pawar has publicly attributed to the CM a deliberate effort to protect Bhimanwar, pointing to a personal friendship between the two as the basis for that allegation, a dispute that has drawn the Fadnavis government into a prolonged standoff with the opposition leader. Bhimanwar, who held a sales tax posting in Nagpur at the time, was brought into the chief minister's office as a personal secretary after Fadnavis took up that role for the first time in 2014. The role of MPSC chairman passed to him through an appointment made by the Fadnavis administration in December 2025.
Fadnavis has indicated that removing the MPSC chairman falls outside his authority, given that the appointment rests with the Governor, and a formal letter has already been dispatched to Governor Jishnu Dev Verma requesting that an inquiry into the MPSC head's conduct be set in motion. A claim was also put forward that the paper leaks had taken place prior to Bhimanwar's appointment as chairman. A verbal exchange between Pawar and BJP leaders in government broke out as a consequence of the same developments.
Retaining the support of MPSC aspirants — a group drawn predominantly from western Maharashtra and Marathwada — has become a matter of active political management for the Fadnavis faction, whose attention to the issue reflects how the protest movement has acquired a sensitive standing in the current political landscape. Governing-bloc figures have characterised Rohit Pawar's involvement in the student protest movement as an effort to advance his own political standing.
PWD minister Shivendrasinh Bhonsle travelled to meet Pawar on Sunday evening, with the two holding talks aimed at resolving the ongoing protest. The rivalry between the Fadnavis faction and Rohit Pawar appears set to persist, regardless of whether that effort produces a resolution.
Voting contests for a pair of cooperative institutions in western Maharashtra have drawn notice from across the political landscape. A contest for leadership of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Federation — the body behind the Gokul dairy brand — has drawn multiple parties into an active electoral dispute. Drawn from a membership base of more than 500,000 farmers and dairy producers, the Federation is preparing to elect a fresh board of directors to govern the milk cooperative, whose annual turnover reached ₹4,185 crore in 2025–26.
At stake in the contest are two rival panels — one assembled from parties within the Mahayuti alliance and led by NCP minister Hasan Mushrif, the other put forward by the opposition bloc with Congress leader Satej Patil at its head and farmers' representative Raju Shetti lending his support. Campaigning across Kolhapur district has grown notably competitive, with both sides pressing hard for ground.
At Someshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory, the contest that has drawn attention centres on who will control the institution's governing body. Three factions are competing for control of the cooperative: one backed by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar and her sons Parth and Jay, another led by Purushottam Jagtap — who previously managed the cooperative as a close associate of Ajit Pawar — and a third fielded by Yugendra Pawar, Ajit Pawar's nephew, who stood against him in the most recent assembly election.
Voting results from both contests will reveal whether incumbents tied to the parties in power can hold on to their seats in politically prominent cooperative bodies across western Maharashtra, or whether challengers from outside those parties are positioned to displace them.
The Nagpur graduates' constituency contest in the state legislative council has placed the BJP's state leadership in a position it must navigate with care. Sudhakar Kohale was put forward as the party's candidate to contest the seat that Abhijit Vanjari of Congress had held since his 2020 victory there. Anil Sole, who previously held a BJP legislative seat, has broken from the party to run as an independent candidate, drawing backing from Girish Vyas, another legislator who once served under the same party banner. Ties to the RSS — an organisation whose national base sits in Nagpur — are attributed to both figures.
Among the constituencies where the BJP maintained its grip across multiple generations, this one produced notable alumni in Nitin Gadkari and Gangadharrao Fadnavis — the latter being Devendra Fadnavis's father — before the seat passed to the current era. Vanjari's 2020 contest ended with an outcome few had anticipated, the ballot count delivering a win that ran against the prevailing expectations.
Dissenting candidates within the party's own ranks have siphoned off votes and media attention, compounding the obstacles facing the state BJP organisation as it works to win back the constituency. A trip by Fadnavis to Nagpur is anticipated, with the Chief Minister set to confront simmering disagreements within party ranks.
