NCP will contest Maharashtra civic polls independently: Ajit Pawar

The NCP will contest civic elections on its strength so the local leaders and cadre should work to strengthen the party in their respective area, he said.

Ajit Pawar’s announcement came after a section of local leaders of NCP in Pimpri Chinchwad left the party to join the Sharad Pawar faction.

After his party’s poor performance in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, Ajit Pawar is facing the challenge to prove his political mettle in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The schedule for elections to local bodies, which include municipal councils, nagar panchayats and zilla parishads, is not yet finalised.

Pawar said some local leaders in Pimpri Chinchwad left the party considering there are limitations in their growth due to alliance of NCP with other political parties.

“The local leaders left but most of the party cadre have continued to be with the NCP,” he said, adding the decision to join the NDA alliance has been purely with the intention of overall development of the state.

Meanwhile, NCP’s Pune unit chief Deepak Mankar denied speculations of local leaders leaving the party.

He also said that there will be more development in the state when the same alliance is ruling in the state and Centre.

“The stand of Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh to be part of NDA has been to ensure development of their respective states. Thus, it is necessary to be in an alliance that rules in state and centre to ensure development of state,” he said.

Pawar said that the party cadre, while working to strengthen the NCP, should not behave in a manner that will defame the party.

“Our election campaign should be positive. Don’t allow anyone to try to gain sympathy due to our behaviour or stand,” he said.

“There were attempts to defame sitting legislator Sunil Tingre in a hit-and-run (Porsche crash) incident. He faced enquiry for three to four hours and shared everything with authorities. He has no connection in the case. He just rushed to spot after hearing of the incident and any legislator would do that for such an incident in his constituency,” Pawar added.