Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday said he took the decision to join the government only to use the ‘charisma’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the benefit of Maharashtra and its people. “If people’s issues need to be solved, if development backlog needs to be recovered…the Central government under Narendra Modi has been in power for last nine years. We believe that his charisma needs to be utilised for the progressive state of Maharashtra and therefore we have taken this decision,” said Ajit at a public rally in Beed in Marathwada region. The rally has been planned in Beed ten days after NCP president Sharad Pawar held his rally on August 17 in the same city. Beed is the home district of Agriculture Minister Dhananjay Munde, one of the closest aides of Ajit Pawar. Party leaders had initially claimed that the Beed rally would not be about replying to NCP president Sharad Pawar but would focus on development. However, all senior leaders from the Ajit group chose to make claims about the ongoing tussle over the party name and symbol, claiming Ajit Pawar is the rightful leader of the party. “Now I know Narendra Modi and Amit Shah very well. This can be used for the benefit of the people of Maharashtra. I want to say that we have joined the government for no selfish reasons. We want to work for the people and for development. Nothing else,” he said, adding that people do criticise when a different decision is taken and he will answer them only through work while avoiding to name his uncle and NCP president Sharad Pawar. Earlier, NCP’s national working president from Ajit’s group, Praful Patel, said that just like Sharad Pawar, even he won’t call it a split in the NCP as majority of party legislators, leaders and workers have taken a decision to be under the leadership of Ajit Pawar. “It is a collective decision taken in a democratic manner. Let me be very clear that the Election Commission’s decision will be in favour of us. The party name and symbol will be with Ajit dada. We have taken the decision only after thinking about all the technical sides of it,” said Patel. Dhananjay Munde, in whose home district of Beed Sharad Pawar had held a rally on August 19, also took a swipe at Sharad Pawar. “It was said that Beed supported Pawar saheb, but the question remains as to what he gave to the district. But Ajit dada did give a lot to this district. The rally is not to reply to anyone but to undertake the responsibility of the development of Beed district. This is the rally for Beed’s development and of pride. This will pave the way to end drought in Beed,” said Munde.
