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This is an archive article published on September 23, 2023

Rohit Pawar made first move to join hands with BJP, says NCP MLA Sunil Shelke

Sunil Shelke is a first-time MLA from Maval Assembly seat. He belongs to the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP.

Rohit Pawar Sunil ShelkeNationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA from Maharashtra, Sunil Shelke (R) and Rohit Pawar (L) (Express Photo)
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Rohit Pawar made first move to join hands with BJP, says NCP MLA Sunil Shelke
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Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA from Maharashtra, Sunil Shelke, has alleged that Rohit Pawar, the grand-nephew of Sharad Pawar, was eager to join the BJP and is now trying to replace Ajit Pawar. Rohit is from the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP.

“When Eknath Shinde staged a rebellion on June 20, 2022, two days later, Rohit Pawar had met Ajit Pawar along with some party ministers and first-time MLAs. When Ajit Pawar said we should get Sharad Pawar’s permission, Rohit took us to Sharad Pawar,” Shelke said at a press conference in Wadgaon Maval on Friday.

Shelke, a first-time MLA from Maval Assembly seat, belongs to the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP. He was in the BJP till 2019. In the 2019 Assembly elections, Ajit Pawar roped him into the NCP and since then, Shelke has been close to him. Shelke was given the charge of the recently held Chinchwad Assembly bypolls and is also a strong contender for the Maval Lok Sabha seat.

Saying that Rohit was trying to replace Ajit Pawar in the NCP faction, Shelke said, “Rohit Pawar is trying to get close to Sharad Pawar. But only Ajit Pawar can be close to Sharad Pawar and no one else. Rohit Pawar, no matter how much he tries, will never be able to replace Ajit Pawar.”

Stressing that the NCP was a family, Shelke said, “NCP was one family and we will make all efforts to ensure that we remain one. Senior NCP leaders are trying to come together but the way Rohit Pawar is making statements, it is clear he does not want that to happen.”

“Various allegations are being made against the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. We have been quiet for two months…Now we are replying to those who are making false charges against us. NCP is not a political party, it is a family. Everyone will be treated as a family member and the party will follow the Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar ideology,” Shelke added.

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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