Days after NCP president Sharad Pawar held a public rally at Beed in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, the rebel Ajit Pawar group will hold a rally on August 27 in the same city. State Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde on Saturday said, “The NCP will hold its public rally on August 27. The rally will be addressed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and other senior leaders of the party.” Following the rebellion by Ajit on July 2, when he joined hands with the BJP, eight other senior party leaders including Munde had been sworn in as ministers. NCP president Sharad Pawar had then announced that he will tour the state to rebuild his party. As a part of it, he had held his first rally at Yeola in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, which is the constituency of another rebel minister Chhagan Bhujbal. The second rally was held in Beed on August 17, which is the home district of Munde, who is considered as one of the close aides of Ajit. Prior to Sharad Pawar’s rally huge posters of Ajit were put up in Beed asking Sharad Pawar to give him blessings. While other speakers at Sharad Pawar’s rally slammed and mocked Munde for his actions, Sharad Pawar interestingly chose to neglect Munde in his speech. The Ajit group’s rally is also a repeat of the war within the Shiv Sena where Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had chosen to confront former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at Khed in Ratnagiri district by holding a public rally. Shinde however later stopped his reply rallies amid reports of bad publicity.
