‘Will make no difference’: Ajit Pawar on Nirmala Sitharaman’s Baramati visit

BJP leaders in Baramati are scheduled to hold a meeting Saturday afternoon to plan the itinerary for Sitharaman’s visit. “A party rally will be addressed by the finance minister during her visit to Baramati,” said Vasude Kale, state president of the party’s Kisan Morcha.

As a part of BJP’s Mission Baramati, Sitharaman was scheduled to visit the Pawar bastion from August 17 to 25. However, the visit was postponed due to the ongoing festivals and was tentatively scheduled for September 22, said party sources.

The BJP has shortlisted 141 such seats across the country which it wants to win in the next general elections. Of these, 16 seats are in Maharashtra.

Referring to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s proposed visit to Mumbai, Pawar said, “He (Shah) is the country’s home minister. Not just him but every citizen of this country has the right to visit any part of the country. Journalists should not panic just because the home minister is coming to Maharashtra.”

On Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Pawar said, “In Indian culture, we keep meeting people. If someone has met him (Raj Thackeray), there is nothing to feel bad about. We are not enemies of each other. We have political differences.”