A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar kickstarted his state tour from Nasik district, two of his former close aides who have switched sides to join hands with Ajit Pawar — Dilip Walse-Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal claimed on Sunday that their leadership in respective areas has brought development to the region. The leaders said that they have nothing against Sharad Pawar but pointed fingers at people close to him including Rohit Pawar, the grand nephew of the NCP founder. “I am in politics for 40 years while his (Rohit Pawar) age is 37. He put out a social media post asking how much more Sharad Pawar should have given to me? I know that I owe everything to Sharad Pawar. I met him (Rohit) once. If it is about his assembly constituency, then I resign from mine and you stand here. I don’t have any grudge against Pawar family except for this,” said Walse-Patil, who sworn in as a minister last week along with Ajit Pawar. He was speaking at a programme in Manchar on Sunday. Earlier, Walse-Patil had claimed that his decision to join the present government was to effectively oppose the diversion of water to Ahmadnagar district from Dimbhe dam in his constituency. Rohit Pawar represents Karjat-Jamkhed assembly in Ahmadnagar district. “If this is done, our area will face drought,” Walse-Patil claimed. “We have not joined the BJP. We are going to remain independent and going to work like that in future,” he said. In Nasik, Bhujbal, another minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government, said that Sharad Pawar’s rally on Saturday was organised by people who were thrown out from the NCP. Pawar held his first rally in Yeola, the Assembly constituency of Bhujbal, and apologised to the voters for fielding Bhujbal from the seat. “No, he (Sharad Pawar) did not field me. I had chosen Yeola as the constituency. I feel sad that saheb had to apologise. But people thank him for the development that I brought in,” claimed Bhujbal. Both Walse-Patil and Bhujbal said that talks were held inside the NCP about supporting the BJP. “Whenever we used to discuss within the party, MLAs used to complain that there works are not getting done and we need to join the government. We discussed within the party. Informed Supriya tai ( NCP leader Supriya Sule) about it. But we did not get reply. Then we went to Pawar saheb and informed him the position of party workers. And only after that more than 40 MLAs like us took this decision,” Walse-Patil said. Bhujbal said that it must pondered upon as to why people are quitting. “You have to think, why they are leaving? The only difference here is, we have taken the decision, which you wanted to take,” Bhujbal said. Commenting on Sharad Pawar’s state tour, Walse-Patil appealed NCP workers to attend that rally as well and said that he is not bothered about next elections. Bhujbal, however, asked why only his constituency was targeted. “Everybody signed on a letter to join the government, but the public rally was held in my assembly segment only while those in other areas were cancelled. Am I being targeted?” he asked.
