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Amid speculation as to whether the two factions of NCP will come back together, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday made it clear that those who have joined hands with BJP cannot remain in NCP.
”Those who are with BJP cannot be with NCP. If today anyone is ready to compromise and tie up with BJP, we will not accept them. This is because people had voted against BJP and voted for us in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections,” Pawar said at a press conference in Junnar on Sunday.
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Pawar said people’s sentiment must be honoured. ”If people have voted in our favour and against the BJP, we should honour their sentiment,” he said.
On the dispute before the Election Commission, Pawar said, “ I have received summons from the EC to remain present on October 6. I will go for the hearing. We will present our stand there.” Pawar said there is no law which says a party should have support of two-third of the total MLAs to claim ownership of the party.
Meanwhile, constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi on Sunday reacted strongly to a claim made by an independent MLA, close to BJP, that Sharad Pawar will join hands with BJP in 15-20 days.
Sharad Pawar will remain with INDIA bloc at the national level and with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra, said the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday, after Amravati MLA Ravi Rana on Saturday claimed that the NCP chief would tie up with BJP in the next 15-20 days.
”Whoever claims that our party chief will join hands with BJP does not warrant a response. He will remain with the INDIA bloc and Maha Vikas Aghadi. He is at the forefront in bringing all Opposition parties together. The Opposition is heavily banking on him to rout the BJP. Our party chief will not follow an ideology dangerous for the nation. He is making all efforts towards ousting BJP in 2024 elections,” Mahesh Tapase, spokesperson of Sharad Pawar-led NCP, told The Indian Express.
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On Saturday, Rana, an independent MLA supporting BJP, said, ”A strong BJP government will emerge In Maharashtra and at the Centre with participation of Sharad Pawar,” said Rana. He said that during the Ganesh Utsav, he visited several mandals to pray “before the Lord to have Sharad Pawar join hands with PM Narendra Modi for the country’s sake. Wait for the miracle over the next 15-20 days,” Rana said.
Sena (UBT), part of MVA, rubbished Rana’s claim. ”Did Ravi Rana take permission from Devendra Fadnavis before saying this? If this is true, then it is clear that BJP is indulging in breaking parties,” said Sena (UBT) spokesperson Aher. The Congress state unit also slammed Rana’s claim. ”These are people paid by the BJP to make such statements. The formation of the INDIA bloc has shaken BJP, which is clueless about how to tackle the strong force. So it is resorting to disturb the INDIA bloc with baseless statements. Sharad Pawar has his own ideology, and has always backed people from different strata of society, unlike BJP which is dividing people. The NCP chief follows the ideology, principles and values cherished by Mahatma Gandhi, and will never toe the Godse line, as BJP does,” said Congress spokesperson Gopal Tiwari.
Sena MP Sanjay Raut recently, in his column ‘Rokhthok’ in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, discounted the possibility of Pawar tying up with Modi. ”He considers BJP a regressive force that seeks to divide people on the basis of religion. Sharad Pawar will never make the mistake of joining people who lead by dictatorship,” he said.
NCP leader Ankush Kakade, a close associate of Sharad Pawar for several decades, said, ”Ravi Rana has lost his mental balance. NCP will bear all expenditure on his mental treatment.”
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Kakade urged the press not to give importance to such news. ”Such people make ridiculous claims. I request the media not to highlight such statements,” he said.
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.
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