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This is an archive article published on October 10, 2023

‘High regard for Sharad Pawar’: After ‘dictator’ remark before EC, Ajit Pawar’s NCP does U-turn

Days after the legal team for the Ajit Pawar faction allegedly referred to Sharad Pawar as a ‘dictator’, party spokesperson Amol Mitkari said the lawyers’ arguments are ‘part of the judicial process’.

Ajit and Sharad PawarThe EC is currently hearing the Ajit Pawar group’s claim to the NCP name and symbol following its rebellion from the party in July.
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‘High regard for Sharad Pawar’: After ‘dictator’ remark before EC, Ajit Pawar’s NCP does U-turn
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Days after allegedly telling the Election Commission (EC) that Sharad Pawar ran the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in a dictatorial manner, the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the party has done a U-turn, saying that it holds the veteran leader in high esteem.

“We have not said that Sharad Pawar ran the party in a dictatorial manner before the Election Commission…Our lawyers have made some arguments which are part of their legal process,” NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari told a news channel on Tuesday. He was responding to a question regarding an alleged submission made before the EC.

The EC is currently hearing the Ajit Pawar group’s claim to the NCP name and symbol following its rebellion from the party in July. On the first day of the hearing last week, the legal team for the Ajit Pawar faction allegedly referred to Sharad Pawar as a “dictator”.

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“We had conveyed our stand to our lawyers. The arguments they make are part of their process. On our part, we have made our submissions through the lawyers. The lawyers have made their arguments which is their right. But we have not said…We have high regard for Sharad Pawar…It will remain in the future as well,” Mitkari added.

Asked when the NCP realised that Sharad Pawar was running the party like a “dictator”, Mitkari said, “NCP is run as per constitutional norms. There is no place for dictatorial behaviour in our party. This party is not a party but a family. The arguments made by the lawyers are part of the judicial process…”

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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