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‘No truth’ in talk of Ajit defection: Sharad Pawar

Pawar also said Congress leader K C Venugopal had come to meet him and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, NCP, Ajit Pawar to join BJP, Ajit Pawar NCP, Ajit Pawar BJP, Sharad Pawar on Ajit Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party, MaharashtraNCP chief Sharad Pawar and Opposition Leader in Maharashtra Assembly Ajit Pawar. (Express file photo)
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ON A day of intense buzz over the possible defection of Ajit Pawar to the BJP-led ruling alliance in Maharashtra, his party chief and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar sought to calm nerves in the MVA by saying there was “no truth” in such speculation.

Responding to questions from reporters in Purandar on Tuesday about Ajit Pawar’s possible shift to BJP, Pawar said “There is no truth in it… The discussion that is underway in the media (about Ajit Pawar) currently is not part of our agenda. We don’t attach any importance to it. I can tell you this on behalf of the NCP… We are focusing on strengthening the NCP. I don’t have any meetings. Today, I will be going to Mumbai.”

He also said that the party’s state president Jayant Patil “is currently busy in his own region” and “Ajit Pawar is providing guidance to the party’s rank and file”.

“When I have made it clear, then there is no need for you people to give another meaning to what I say. There is no truth to the discussions centring around Ajit Pawar. What I say is more important than what others say,” Pawar said.

Pawar also said Congress leader K C Venugopal had come to meet him and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. “(We) discussed the plan to hold a meeting of Opposition parties at the national level.”

Pawar’s comments came hours after he had a discussion over phone with Uddhav Thackeray, Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Sule and a few other leaders but not Ajit Pawar.

Meanwhile, at least three NCP MLAs — Anna Bansode from Pimpri, Manikrao Kokate from Sinnar and Nitin Pawar from Nashik — openly came out in support of Ajit Pawar. “I am an Ajit Pawar loyalist. Whatever decision Ajit Pawar takes, I will support him.. I did the same thing when he joined hands with BJP in 2019. Till the last, I remained with Ajit-dada,” said Bansode.

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Speaking to The Indian Express, Raut said the BJP was trying to break NCP but would not succeed. “The BJP is jittery ahead of the Supreme Court verdict on disqualification of MLAs of the Eknath Shinde camp. The Chief Minister is nervous…The BJP is trying to split the NCP but it will not succeed, come what may.”

Asked about speculation on Ajit Pawar, Raut said, “This is the handiwork of the BJP, which intends to cause confusion among the masses. It is trying to create a rift but nothing of that sort will happen. These speculations will not have any impact on the unity of MVA.”

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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