Indian Olympic Association chairman Suresh Kalmadi, a key figure in the management of the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, is keen to represent the city in the Lok Sabha once the Games are over.

The MP on Friday decribed himself as the “natural candidate” to contest the polls next year from the city seat.

In the backdrop of statements by NCP leaders that they would support an “intellectual” candidate for the seat., journalists asked Kalmadi how he rated his chances. The Congress leader replied, “I am there.”

Yet he felt that the NCP was not keen on forging an alliance with the Congress in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The Congress, he said, always favoured an alliance with the NCP. “I have been very kind and frequently urged the NCP to join hands with us in the civic body,” he said. The Congress had even sought the posts of mayor and standing committee chairman, but the NCP had turned it down, he said

He said efforts had been made for a fresh alliance with the NCP, with BJP leaders having fallen out with NCP chief Sharad Pawar. “Pawar was not keen on a civic alliance. He said it’s a issue to be handled by local leaders and he woldn’t get into it. I don’t know who these local leaders are,” Kalmadi said.

The NCP, in alliance with the Shiv Sena and the BJP, had kept the Congress out of power in the local civic body after the elections last year.

On the Games, Kalmadi was confident that the PMC would complete developing the infrastructure by the end of September end. “We are aware that road construction work for the Commonwealth Youth Games should be speeded up. It will be completed in time, with the Union government having sanctioned additional money,” he said.