On the back foot after sarpanch murder, Ajit Pawar unlikely to accept Beed guardian ministership
The Nationalist Congress Party has refused to comment on whether Dhananjay Munde, the party leader who is under fire over his aide’s alleged role in the Beed sarpanch murder, would be ousted from the cabinet.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. (File Photo)
Even as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was seen playing cricket in Baramati with locals after his return from abroad, his NCP remains in a precarious position regarding the district guardian ministership of Beed, which is witnessing mass protests over sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh’s murder. The party has indicated that he may not take up the role, contrary to speculations.
“No decision has been taken regarding the guardian ministership of Beed. We will decide when leaders of the three alliance partners sit for a discussion,” NCP state president Sunil Tatkare told The Indian Express on Sunday. “If Beed comes our way during discussions with our alliance partners, then we will decide who should be the guardian minister,” he added.
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Tatkare, however, refused to comment on whether Dhananjay Munde, the NCP leader who is under fire over the murder, would be ousted from the cabinet. He served as Beed’s guardian minister for two and a half years in the Eknath Shinde government.
An NCP spokesperson, however, said the party chief would not accept the guardian ministership. “Ajit Pawar is already handling too many responsibilities, including the finance portfolio and the guardian ministership of Baramati. The party is considering the possibility of giving it to the BJP,” the spokesperson said.
Given the alleged involvement of Dhananjay Munde’s close associates in the sarpanch murder, MLAs from various parties, including MP Bajrang Sonawane from the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, have demanded his ouster not only as guardian minister but also from the cabinet.
Sonawane has repeatedly insisted that Ajit Pawar should take up the role. “Ajit Pawar will understand the ground situation here only if he takes up the Beed district guardian ministership,” he said.
BJP MLA Suresh Dhas, who has been vocal in his demand for Munde’s removal from the cabinet, questioned Ajit Pawar. “Ajitdada, kya hua tera vaada? (What happened to your promise?)” he asked on Saturday.
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Referring to Munde’s statement that those involved in the murder should be hanged, Dhas said, “First, he (Munde) should learn how to behave. If you (Ajit Pawar) do not know who the mastermind in the case is, send your men to find out.”
Dhas added, “I had told Ajit Pawar that if MLA Prakash Solunkhe or Rajesh Vitekar should be made the Beed guardian minister… If you don’t have suitable candidates, then leave Beed without a guardian minister.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
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