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This is an archive article published on October 5, 2023

Fadnavis backs Shinde, NCP says Ajit Pawar will soon be CM

On Wednesday, while giving an interview to news channel Mumbai Tak, Fadnavis said Eknath Shinde would continue to be the CM and both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be fought under his leadership.

pune newsState minister Dharmaraobaba Atram, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction, said the 2024 elections will be fought under Ajit Pawar's leadership.
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Fadnavis backs Shinde, NCP says Ajit Pawar will soon be CM
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A DAY after BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said Eknath Shinde will remain Chief Minister both during Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections, the NCP insisted that the next elections will be fought under the leadership of Ajit Pawar.

“Ajit Pawar will soon become Chief Minister… 2024 elections will be fought only under his leadership,” said state minister Dhramraobaba Atram, who belongs to the NCP-led Ajit Pawar faction and was recently appointed as the District Guardian Minister for Gondia.

“Ajit Pawar is the face of the Marathas…the Mahayuti will contest the upcoming elections under his leadership. The NCP is taking massive preparations to win all seats. The party will select candidates on the basis of elective merit. Ajit Pawar will ensure victory in maximum seats and become the Chief Minister,” said Atram.

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On Wednesday, while giving an interview to news channel Mumbai Tak, Fadnavis said Eknath Shinde would continue to be the CM and both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections will be fought under his leadership.

He said Ajit Pawar will become the CM when the opportunity arises. An NCP spokesperson said, ”We don’t take Devendra Fadnavis seriously. In the past, he had said that BJP will never tie up with NCP but now he has. Fadnavis says many things depending on the situation. We are confident Ajit Pawar will be the chief minister.”

While the NCP banks hopes on Ajit Pawar becoming the CM in future, Fadnavis’s statement has allayed the fears of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which has been in a tizzy ever since leaders from Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction have been tweeting, putting up boards and giving statements calling him the future Chief Minister.

“There is nothing new in what Fadnavis said. The day Eknath Shinde was appointed Chief Minister, we knew he was unlikely to be replaced anytime soon. Whatever leaders of Ajit Pawar’s camp are saying, it is being said for their satisfaction and to keep the flock together. Those statements were making the NCP rank and file happy and that’s the reason they did not object,” said Maval MP Shrirang Barne, who belongs to the Shinde Sena.

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Former MP Shivajirao Adhalrao-Patil, who belongs to the Shinde Sena, also said, “Devendra Fadnavis’s statement is a big relief for our party. We know Eknath Shinde is comfortably seated on the CM’s post and that he will not be replaced with Ajit Pawar. In politics, you do everything to keep the flock together. And that’s why Ajit Pawar’s party keeps raising the issue of chief ministership.”

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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