Pune: Parties continue tussle over Amit Shah’s PMC visit

NCP leader Dipali Dhumal, who is the Leader of Opposition in the PMC, said the ruling BJP in the civic body deliberately ensured that no leaders from Opposition parties were present for the function. “The mayor’s office made a last-minute call asking to submit an RT-PCR report and attend the function. This, despite knowing that RT-PCR report cannot be made available at the last minute. The ruling BJP did it deliberately to keep leaders of Opposition parties away from the function,” she said.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol, however, alleged the NCP leader was lying. “The leaders of Opposition parties were asked by their leadership not to attend the function. Dhumal is lying that last-minute demand for RT-PCR was made,” he said.

The invitation for the function had the names of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, state minister Eknath Shinde, Shiv Sena leader Neelam Gorhe and Congress leader Nana Patole, besides BJP leaders. Only Gorhe of the Shiv Sena attended the function in the PMC’s main building.

However, the city unit of the Shiv Sena, led by party unit chief Sanjay More, later met the Union minister separately to submit a memorandum condemning the vandalization of the statue of Maratha king Shivaji in Karnataka’s Belagavi and sought action against the culprits.

Earlier in the day, the local unit of the NCP staged a protest at Jangli Maharaj Road against the vandalization of the statue in BJP-ruled Karnataka. The leaders alleged that the BJP had no respect for the Maratha king and merely used him to seek votes.

Congress leader Mohan Joshi said the BJP roping in Shah ahead of the upcoming PMC elections indicates that the party has realised its possibility of failure in the civic polls. “The ruling BJP having to bring in their national leaders for civic elections speaks of their failure in carrying out development of the city and hiding it by getting national leaders to campaign for the party,” he said.

The Opposition parties had on Friday flayed the BJP for putting up hoardings and flex boards across the city for advertising the function with large-sized images of BJP leaders, but had failed to put up pictures of the Maratha king or Ambedkar on it. After they sought an apology from the ruling party in the general body meeting, the BJP assured that the error will be corrected and that proper care will be taken in future.