Ajit Pawar cancels Pune rally, rumours of his plans surface again

Says cancellation on account of Mumbai tragedy, coincides with BJP leaders heading to Delhi

NCP leader Ajit Pawar. (File Photo)

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A SUDDEN cancellation of a Pune event by NCP leader Ajit Pawar, coinciding with two top BJP leaders from Maharashtra rushing to Delhi, has set off fresh speculation regarding the plans of the Leader of Opposition in the state.

While Shiv Sena (UBT) once again ruled out any possibility of a split in ally NCP, the Eknath Shinde-led Sena said if Ajit Pawar joins hands with the BJP, it will strengthen the state government.

Also Read | ‘Ajit Pawar restless in NCP’: Vijay Shivtare invites him to join Shinde-led Sena

Uddhav Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said: “Ajit Pawar was with us at the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) rally in Nagpur Sunday. He shared the stage with top MVA leaders. We returned in the same plane and even talked about the rumours floating around (on his split from the NCP)…We are fully confident that Ajit Pawar will not join hands with the BJP.”

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Raut said NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had also refuted the possibility of his party joining hands with the BJP, which is another claim that has been doing the rounds.

Asked about it after the MVA rally, Ajit Pawar said: “I had a hearty laugh after hearing the news about me.” His office said he had cancelled his public events in Pune on Monday due to the heat tragedy in Navi Mumbai on Sunday, leaving more than 10 people dead.

Also Read | After 11 die at Maharashtra Bhushan Award event, Uddhav and Ajit Pawar blame Govt for poor choice of time

State BJP president Chandrakashekar Bawankule and Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar were the two party leaders who rushed to Delhi Monday. Bawankule told reporters his visit was on account of “administrative work” and “nothing to do with politics”.

The rumours regarding Ajit first started surfacing after a chargesheet was filed by the Enforcement Directorate in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam, in which unexpectedly Ajit Pawar and his wife were not named as accused. For some time now, Ajit has been seen as being soft on the Sena-BJP government, especially on Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

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After the 2019 Assembly elections, Ajit had briefly joined hands with Fadnavis for a shot at government – a fact that his detractors have not forgotten.

Also Read | In Pune, Sharad Pawar mum on Ajit Pawar, Uddhav Sena confident he won’t drift to BJP

Asked about the possible defection of Ajit, NCP MP Supriya Sule said, “I have no clue about this… I don’t indulge in idle gossip.”

Last week though, in an enigmatic reply, Sule had said: “After a sunny climate, I can’t predict when it will rain.”

Others point to an equally cryptic answer by Pawar Sr, the past master at realpolitik. Asked about Ajit’s alleged plans to defect along with several NCP MLAs, he said during a television interview that while NCP leaders were at heart against this, they were under pressure due to the threat of cases by central agencies against them.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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