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This is an archive article published on February 19, 2024

Not going to BJP, says Jayant Patil from Sharad Pawar camp

Jayant Patil is known for his ‘good equation’ with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Ajit PawarJayant Patil told a Marathi news channel, “If my name is being discussed, then it is a good thing. If we get publicity, we get an opportunity... I am not going anywhere... I will speak on this later.” (Photo/X/@abuasimazmi)

With senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan leaving the Grand Old Party and joining the BJP giving rise to speculations that many other leaders may follow suit, state president of Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction Jayant Patil denied any plans of jumping ship and joining the saffron party.

His reaction came after Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule commented that ”anything can happen anytime” when he was asked if Jayant Patil is joining the party.

Reacting to Bawankule’s statement, Jayant Patil, while speaking to a Marathi news channel, said, “If my name is being discussed, then it is a good thing…I am not going anywhere…I will speak on this later on.”

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Patil, who is known for his good equation with BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, are among the few leaders considered to be in the good books of the BJP.

Bawankule waxed eloquent about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ”Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the country the guarantee of development. Several leaders are coming forward to support the PM’s guarantee and Atmanirbhar mission. But anything can happen anytime… Anyone can join us to support the PM,” he said.

Bawankule however denied that he had met Jayant Patil. He said Patil has not contacted the BJP for gaining entry into the party.

Since Monday morning, there were speculations that a top opposition leader from Western Maharashtra would be changing parties.

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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