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This is an archive article published on October 18, 2023

BJP trying to ‘finish off’ Ajit Pawar politically, says MLA Rohit Pawar

MLA Rohit Pawar criticised the BJP for its silence over former Pune police chief Meeran Borwankar’s allegation in her book that Ajit Pawar had tried to put pressure on her for handing over prime police land to a private builder in 2010.

puneAt a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday, Ajit Pawar denied that he put any pressure for handing over the land to the private party. (Express)
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BJP trying to ‘finish off’ Ajit Pawar politically, says MLA Rohit Pawar
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Maharashtra MLA Rohit Pawar, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has alleged that the BJP was trying to weaken Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and “finish him off” politically.

Rohit’s remarks came while criticising the BJP for its silence over the allegations made by former Pune police commissioner Meeran Borwankar in her book Madam Commissioner where she said that Ajit Pawar had tried to put pressure on her for handing over 3 acres of prime police land to a private builder in 2010. Ajit Pawar has denied the charges.

“Serious allegations have been levelled against Ajit Pawar. He has replied to those charges but the BJP has kept silent. This is the party’s tendency. Earlier too, it has tried to finish off several leaders in the political arena,” Rohit said, interacting with the media in Pimpri-Chinchwad on Tuesday.

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Rohit said there was “another angle” to the controversy. “People are talking about attempts to finish off Ajit Pawar politically. BJP has made such attempts in the past too. It has happened in the case of [former minister] Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde,” he said.

Referring to Pankaja’s struggles in the BJP, Rohit said, “The BJP leader from Beed has struggled in her own party for whose growth her father Gopinath Munde was instrumental. BJP is behaving in a similar manner with Ajit Pawar. The BJP believes if it resorts to such tactics, the competition ends. But BJP should remember, it doesn’t work in this way. It might be happening in northern states but it will not work in Maharashtra.”

Reacting to the allegations, BJP spokesperson Sandeep Khardekar said, “When the NCP spokespersons and leaders are putting out a defence in favour of Ajit Pawar, where is the need for us to speak on the same issue?”

Khardekar said Ajit Pawar himself has spoken in detail about the project, clearly stating that there was no corruption or illegality in the project. “We also believe that Ajit Pawar is in the clean. The deal did not go through. The project was cancelled by the state government itself. The project was cancelled as the private firm which was supposed to get the contract faced an ED [Enforcement Directorate] case. Therefore, neither Ajit Pawar nor the state government is in the wrong.”

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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