NCP tells Fadnavis to clarify stand after BJP men wave black flags at Ajit Pawar convoy

Junnar BJP chief: Ajit behaving like rival party leader; NCP demands Fadnavis to clarify stand.

A government meeting was organised on tourism development in Junnar on Sunday. (Photo: X/ @AjitPawarSpeaks)

A group of BJP workers led by party’s Junnar chief Asha Buchake waved black flags at Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s convoy as his Jan Sanman Yatra reached there Sunday.

Reacting to the incident, the Nationalist Congress Party demanded Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to clarify as to whether he approved of the behaviour of his BJP workers.

Asha Buchake claimed that the NCP is trying to promote its candidate in the Junnar seat for the upcoming Assembly polls.

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“They are trying to strangle us… Therefore we have adopted an aggressive stand,” she told reporters even as the BJP protesters raised slogans against Ajit Pawar.

A government meeting was organised on tourism development in Junnar on Sunday. “However, the BJP was not even invited for the meeting. If we are part of Mahayuti, then why are pictures of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not put up in the meeting hall?” she said.

The Junnar Assembly constituency is represented by NCP MLA Atul Benke. The BJP camp has alleged that Pawar is trying to promote Benke. “The NCP is trying to promote another ‘Pappu’ in the form of Atul Benke in Junnar,” she said.

Buchake also criticised Pawar’s conduct as the district guardian minister. “He is behaving like a rival party leader, ignoring the NCP’s alliance partner,” she said. After leading the protest, Buchake was admitted to a local hospital due to high blood pressure.

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Buchake was earlier with the Shiv Sena and has unsuccessfully contested Assembly elections twice. A former zilla parishad member, she now eyes an Assembly poll ticket for Junnar.

Meanwhile, NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said, “Jan Sanman Yatra is an independent event of our party. Those who are showing black flags should hold a separate event… We are seeking clarification from Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about this behaviour of his party workers.”
State NCP spokesperson Sunil Tatkare said, “If anyone is trying to tarnish the image of Mahayuti, then they should be warned.”

“Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis themselves hold meetings with officials in several districts. At that time, other constituents of Mahayuti do not object. Then, why are BJP workers and leaders protesting in Junnar ? Why should they object ? I don’t want to reply to what Asha Buchake said. I am going to speak to BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule,” he said adding that Mahayuti is intact.

NCP state women’s chief Rupali Chakankar said,”Instead of showing black flags, if Asha Buchake had met Ajit Pawar and spoken to him, he would have heard her out. By showing black flags, she was tyring to indulge in a political stunt.”

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MLA Rohit Pawar of the NCP(SP) said, “This is the policy of BJP. They force popular leader to join hands with them and then try to weaken him.”
The NCP and BJP relations have gone for a toss in Maval and Indapur Assembly seats. At both places, where NCP has MLAs, BJP workers are railing against them and want to field their own candidate.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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