Pune protesters at SM Joshi Bridge demand Bhimanwar's exit and 70,000 MPSC posts

Aspirants camped at SM Joshi Bridge in Pune have spent five days demanding the resignation of Maharashtra Public Service Commission chairman Vivek Bhimanwar, recruitment to 70,000 posts, a return to offline examinations, and an inquiry into alleged irregularities and paper leaks. NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar is backing the camp and has said he will not leave until the chairman resigns. Hindustan Times reported the protest on Tuesday.

A student delegation met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on 30 September. BJP leaders have asked why the camp continued after that meeting. Pawar's answer, given at the bridge, was that the camp stays until Bhimanwar goes, and that the protest could become more aggressive. Supriya Sule, the NCP (SP) MP, has asked Fadnavis to meet the protesters himself and has tied the camp to a run of student agitations in the state.

What the 70,000 figure is asking for

The 70,000 is a recruitment demand, not a count of people on the bridge. MPSC exams have been postponed, patterns have changed, and aspirants have alleged leaks. The financial point the Hindustan Times account stresses is the cost of staying in the chase: fees, coaching, and months lost to a postponed paper. The Rajasthan-style examination card the camp wants is a specific procedural ask, a document that would fix a candidate's paper and centre in advance. It is not in force in Maharashtra.

Bhimanwar has not resigned in the public record of Tuesday's reporting. The resignation is the demand, not the event. The chairman's removal is also not a cabinet item Fadnavis can initial alone in the way a scheme can be cleared. Pawar has used that gap. The camp's leverage is the bridge, not a file inside the commission.

The political layer

The agitation sits inside a state argument. Pawar is opposition. Fadnavis is chief minister. The 30 September meeting is the government's exhibit that it has already heard the students. The camp's exhibit is that Bhimanwar is still in the chair and the 70,000 posts are not notified. Sule's intervention pulls the row toward the chief minister personally. None of that fills a vacancy or prints a question paper.

The next date that matters

The camp has no published end date except Pawar's condition, the chairman's exit. A resignation, a notified recruitment number, or a police clearance of SM Joshi Bridge would close the five-day count. Until one of those happens, the facts on the bridge are a demand for one man's exit, a figure of 70,000 posts, a call for offline papers, and a meeting with the chief minister on 30 September that did not end the sit-in.