Christians to urge political parties for representation in Pune polls

Christians to urge political parties for representation
CAMIL PARKHE | Thursday, 19 January 2017 AT 11:49 PM IST
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Christian community, Pune Christian community
Pune: A meeting of leaders of the Christian community from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad held here on Thursday has decided to urge various political parties to provide representation to their community members in the forthcoming civic polls in the two cities.

Presently, not a single member of the Christian community is a member of the present houses in Pune or Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporations.

The meeting of Christian leaders, belonging to various political parties and social activists, was held at St Patrick’s Cathedral. Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre presided over the meeting. It was attended by Pramod Pardhe from Vadgaonsheri, Samuel Negal, Rajan Nair, Mozes Kolkati, Ashish James, Chitralekha James, Anupama Dongre-Joshi and Mary Cruz.

The leaders decided to approach political parties to seek party nominations for the community members in areas where the Christians have a sizable population.

Speaking to Sakal Times, Bishop Thomas Dabre said, “India is a secular country and leaders of all political parties must ensure that people of various religious communities are nominated by them to contest polls and that members of the majority community alone should not be given preference.”

Bishop Dabre, however, made it clear that the Church does not favour any single political party and that the Christians are free to join and vote for any political party.

“The meeting of Christian community leaders held on Wednesday has appealed to the community members active in social and political life that they may approach various political parties to seek nomination for the forthcoming civic polls.” 

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