Together at Shivneri, alone at padyatra: Fadnavis walks alone as Ajit Pawar, Shinde give BJP function a miss

The programme turned into a BJP-dominated function with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the helm. Alongside him were Union Ministers Mansukh Mandviya, Raksha Khadse and Murlidhar Mohol, state ministers Chandrakant Patil and Ashish Shelar, Rajya Sabha MP Medha Kulkarni, BJP MLAs Siddartha Shirole and Hemant Rasane, and local BJP leaders. Maharashtra youth affairs and sports minister Dattatraya Bharne was the only leader from the NCP who took part in the padyatra.

Pawar was scheduled to participate in the padyatra and also attend the inauguration of the second phase of Shivsrushti of Maharaja Trust founded by late historian Babasaheb Purandare. However, he gave a miss to both the functions. Shinde’s itinerary included only the Shivaji’s birth anniversary celebrations at Shivneri fort, after which he returned to Mumbai.

On asked about the absence of both the Deputy CMs at the padyatra, Fadnavis said, “Both the Deputy Chief Ministers attended the birth anniversary function at Shivneri. We came together to Pune but they had to leave for other functions.”

A local NCP leader said the local party unit was not aware of the reason behind Ajit Pawar’s absence from the padyatra. “The local NCP was not informed about the padyatra programme, which was a government function. We were busy celebrating at the local level,” he said.

Meanwhile, the inauguation ceremony of the second phase of Shivsrushti was attended by Fadanavis, Ashish Shelar, Mohol, BJP MP Udayanraje Bhosale and Medha Kulkarni, BJP legislators Bhimrao Tapkir, Sunil Kamble, Uma Khapre and Amit Gorkhe, local RSS leaders and Shiv Sena MLA Vijay Shivtare.

Fadnavis praised the development of Shivsrushti by the trust and declared financial assistance of Rs 50 crore for completing the remaining two phases of the Rs 438 crore project.