Mumbai:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is in a huddle with party colleagues in Pune today after several key leaders switched to the NCP faction led by his uncle and party founder Sharad Pawar. Four Pune leaders resigned from their roles in the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar and joined the Sharad Pawar camp yesterday. These include Ajit Gavhane, NCP’s former Pimpri-Chinchwad chief, and local leaders Rahul Bhosale, Pankaj Bhalekar, and Yash Sane.

Over 20 former corporators, mayors and unit heads from Pimpri-Chinchwad switched to the senior Pawar’s camp yesterday.

The switch comes a month after the Lok Sabha election, in which the Sharad Pawar faction posted a stellar show by winning 8 of the 10 seats it contested. The Ajit Pawar camp was left disappointed, as it managed to win just one seat and lost three. The results, at one level, also showed it is the senior Pawar that NCP supporters are eager to back. This is all the more significant because state polls in Maharashtra are months away.

Sharad Pawar’s Comeback

Sharad Pawar, who founded NCP in 1999, suffered a big setback last year when his nephew Ajit Pawar led a mutiny and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government as a Deputy Chief Minister. The veteran politician also lost his party’s name and symbol and had to fight the Lok Sabha election under the name of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). The poll results brought good news as the veteran trumped his nephew’s faction and won eight seats out of the 10 NCP (SP) contested.

Why NCP Leaders Are Switching

Elections in Maharashtra are months away, and every leader is exploring ways to get a poll pass. With the Sharad Pawar-led faction scoring big in the Lok Sabha polls, many leaders expect them to repeat it in the state election and want to be on the winning side. Several leaders have cited local factors behind their move to switch. “If you look at Pimpri-Chinchwad, both Ajit dada and Pawar sahab contributed to its development. But since 2017, BJP has been ruling the municipal corporation. Development work here was done in the wrong way. There was rampant corruption here,” Mr Gavhane told ANI.

Sharad Pawar’s daughter and four-time Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule said the veteran leader has been working for development in Maharashtra and at the Centre for the last 60 years. “We have faith in Pawar sahab’s ideology and many people in the opposition, too, look towards him with great hopes. This is why people are joining him,” Ms Sule told ANI.

Can Ajit Pawar Switch?

As leaders of his faction switch to Sharad Pawar’s camp, there is speculation that Ajit Pawar, too, may finally try to go back. Sharad Pawar was recently asked if his nephew will get a place in his party if he wants to return. The veteran replied, “Such decisions cannot be taken at the personal level. My colleagues who stood by me during the crisis will be asked first”.

Ajit Pawar’s standing in the Eknath Shinde-led government has taken a big blow due to his poll setback. He is now a Deputy Chief Minister, whose party managed just one seat in the Lok Sabha contest. 

And against this backdrop, the upcoming state polls will be a tall challenge for the 64-year-old leader.

Gadchiroli:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and Industry Minister Uday Samant had a narrow escape on Wednesday after the helicopter in which they were travelling from Nagpur to Gadchiroli lost its way due to poor visibility amid bad weather.

However, the pilot skilfully managed to get back on course and landed the helicopter safely.

The trio had gone to Gadchiroli for the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Rs 10,000 crore Surjagad Ispat integrated steel project in Aheri tehsil of the district.

It was Ajit Pawar who narrated the incident at the function, crediting the pilot’s skill in their safe landing.

“The helicopter properly took off from Nagpur for Gadchiroli. I was quite comfortable after our take-off, watching the clouds. I also told Fadnavis to see them. However, during the journey, the helicopter lost its route due to monsoon clouds. Despite this, Fadnavis was quite calm and was chatting with me. I was getting restless and worried. However, Fadnavis told me not to worry saying that he had met with six accidents earlier and escaped safely. He told me that I will also be safe today,” he said.

The NCP chief said Fadnavis repeatedly told him not to worry.

“I was getting worried about a safe landing. But Fadnavis was quite cool. Uday Samant told me to watch out for the landing site. After looking at it from the window, I heaved a sigh of relief,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Four top leaders from have resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra’s Pimpri Chinchwad, dealing a major blow to the party led by Ajit Pawar after a poor show in the recent Lok Sabha elections. They are likely to join the party led by Sharad Pawar later this week.

Ajit Gavhane, the chief of NCP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit, is among those who have submitted their resignations to Ajit Pawar. The others are Pimpri Chinchwad Students’ Wing chief Yash Sane, and former corporators, Rahul Bhosale and Pankaj Bhalekar.

The resignations come amid a buzz that some leaders in the Ajit Pawar camp are willing to return to the Sharad Pawar fold.

Sharad Pawar said last month those who wanted to “weaken” his party would not be taken in, but he would accept leaders who would not “hurt” the image of the party.

“Those who wanted to weaken the party would not be taken in. But those leaders who would help strengthen the organization and not hurt the image of the party would be taken in,” he had said.

The Pawar family split into two political parties after a rebellion by Ajit Pawar against his uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar in 2023. While Sharad Pawar remained in the Opposition camp, Ajit Pawar joined the Mahayuti government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and was rewarded with the post of his deputy.

Ajit Pawar’s party contested the Lok Sabha elections as part of the BJP-led NDA, but could win just one seat – Raigad – while his uncle’s party bagged eight.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said “traitors” from the party who cross-voted in the recent elections to 11 legislative council seats have been identified and will be punished.

“The same “traitors” had ensured the defeat of the Congress leader Chandrakant Handore in the council elections two years ago,” Mr. Patole claimed on July 13.

“A trap was laid this time and they have been identified. They will be punished so that no one dares to betray the party again,” Mr. Patole told reporters in Mumbai, without taking any name.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, while talking to reporters on July 14, said the Congress has accepted that cross-voting took place and they will take action accordingly.

“The Central government is going to observe the imposition of Emergency as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’. Isn’t it unconstitutional to get MLCs elected by MLAs who are facing disqualification? Isn’t it unconstitutional to purchase MLAs by bribing them? BJP is the real murderer of the Constitution,” Mr. Raut alleged.

Following a split in the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Shiv Sena (UBT) headed by Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) had moved court seeking disqualification of MLAs of the parties led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

The ruling ‘Mahyuti’ in the State, comprising the Shiv Sena led by CM Shinde, the BJP and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, on July 12 won all the nine seats it contested in the biennial elections to 11 seats in the legislative council.

The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) faced a setback as a candidate backed by Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) lost. At least seven Congress MLAs defied the party’s directive while voting, results showed.

“The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Pradyna Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to Milind Narvekar, candidate of the ally Shiv Sena (UBT),” party sources earlier said.

Eventually, Mr. Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted. Jayant Patil of the Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), supported by the NCP (SP), lost.

The 288-member legislative Assembly, with current strength of 274, was the electoral college for the council polls. Each winning candidate required 23 votes.

The BJP is the largest party in the Assembly with 103 members, followed by the Shiv Sena-38, NCP- 42, Congress-37, Shiv Sena (UBT)-15 and NCP (SP)-10.

Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar and Minister of State Deepak Kesarkar display 2024-25 Budget bags on the 2nd Day of the Monsoon Assembly Session, at Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai,
| Photo Credit: ANI

The budget presented by the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra last week ahead of the upcoming Assembly election reflects the outgoing dispensation’s attempts to balance or at least project a semblance of social engineering with populist schemes.

With an allocation of ₹6,12,293 crore for the current fiscal, the budget underscores the tripartite government’s intention to strengthen its support base among various sections.

A key aspect is the grant of 20,000 to each Dindi, a religious procession of Lord Vitthala to Pandharpur on every Ashadhi Ekadashi, demonstrating gratitude to the Warkari community, which holds significant influence in rural Maharashtra, making this a calculated move to secure their support.

Targeting ‘silent’ voters

The introduction of the Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin, based on neighbouring BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh’s popular Ladli Behna Yojana, aims to support women by providing a monthly allowance of ₹1,500 to eligible women aged 21 to 60. It also announced Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana to provide three free LPG cylinders a year for a family of five. These are seen as a direct appeal to women voters, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas, who are considered ‘silent’ yet crucial voters.

The budget also promises several populist measures, including a waiver of power bill dues for 44 lakh farmers, 15 per litre subsidy to dairy farmers, Gaon Tithe Godam (godown in every village) to provide storage facilities for agricultural produce, and subsidy to onion farmers.

These measures are tailored to address the grievances of the agrarian community, which has expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s pol-icies. The allocations indicate an attempt to win back support of the farming sector, a critical voting bloc in Maharashtra.

Earlier this year, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar presented an almost similar vote-on-account budget with several ‘bumper schemes’ ahead of the Lok Sabha poll. Despite those efforts, the ruling alliance won only 17 out of the 48 seats, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), won 30 seats. Ahead of the Assembly poll, the Mahayuti has gone all out to appeal to key segments of the population farmers, women, youth, devotees, and marginalised groups – through budgetary allocations aimed at building a broad social coalition.

Opposition leaders, however, criticised the budget as ‘political hypnotism’ and a ‘torrent of assurances’ designed only to sway voters before the poll.

In addition to these schemes, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, a day after the budget, announced Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojana, a new pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens of all religions.

Ambiguity over funds

Though budget promises abound, concrete implementation strategies and fiscal prudence are lacking, as there is insufficient clarity on funding for the schemes. This ambiguity raises concerns about the feasibility and sustainability of the promises.

Whether this strategic social engineering will overshadow the issue of the split in Shiv Sena and NCP as well as the ongoing rift between Maratha and OBC communities, and translate into electoral dividends for the ruling alliance remains to be seen.

Mumbai:

In a development concerning the alleged Rs 25,000-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam, the Mumbai police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are at loggerheads over the closure report filed before a court here.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police on Thursday opposed the central agency’s plea against closing the case, citing that the apex cooperative bank did not suffer any unfair loss due to the purported fraud.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was named as an accused in the original case registered by the EOW.

While the police sought to close the case as they found no significant loss to the bank, the ED intervened, expressing concerns that accepting the closure report would impact their ongoing money laundering investigation linked to the scam.

The ED has already filed prosecution complaints and supplementary chargesheets in the case, emphasising the interconnected nature of the investigations.

The EOW filed a written submission in the court in which they rebuffed the ED’s intervention, noting that a similar plea had been rejected previously by a special court for cases involving MPs and MLAs.

The timeline of events includes the police filing a closure report in September 2020, which was initially accepted by the court.

However, further investigation was initiated in October 2022 based on protest petitions and the ED’s involvement.

The EOW moved to close the case again in March this year, asserting that no unfair losses were incurred by the bank due to the alleged fraud.

The FIR, which followed a High Court order in August 2019, alleged that loans of several thousand crore rupees obtained by sugar cooperatives, spinning mills and other entities from district and cooperative banks were diverted and not repaid.

Lodged under various sections including criminal breach of trust and cheating, the FIR named  NCP leader Ajit Pawar as an accused with over 70 others, who served as directors of the bank during the relevant period.

The allegations outlined a loss of Rs 25,000 crore to the Maharashtra government between 2007 and 2017, pointing to violations of banking regulations and RBI guidelines in loan disbursements to sugar mills and the undervalued sale of defaulting businesses’ assets.

A former judge, appointed as an authorised officer by the cooperative commissioner, concluded “there was no unfair loss to the bank due to the loans given to the factories (sugar mills),” and “the bank was recovering the amount from the factories by legal means”, the closure report said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar declared that Manusmriti has no place in the state and attacked the opposition for setting a fake narrative in this regard, in the run-up to the state Assembly elections slated for September-October.

“No verse from ‘Manusmriti’ has been included in the school curriculum. No such attempt can be made in the state. Manusmriti is not supported by the state government. The opposition knows that issues like ‘Manusmriti’ have no place in Maharashtra, yet the opposition is deliberately trying to spread misunderstandings by raising issues in this way,” he said at the press conference after the state cabinet meeting on the eve of the Monsoon Session of the Maharashtra Legislature from Thursday.

“It is not right to do politics in this way, Maharashtra cannot afford it,” he added.

Mr Pawar said that Maharashtra is known for implementing the progressive thoughts of Shivaji Phule Shau and Dr B.R. Ambedkar as he reiterated that ‘Manusmriti’ has no place in the state.

He was responding to the opposition’s claim that the state government wants to include verses from ‘Manusmriti’ in the curriculum. Pawar said that School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar has already clarified that the government has no plan to include verses from ‘Manusmriti’ and called upon the opposition to stop doing politics on this issue.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Amid speculations that some of the MLAs of the Ajit Pawar camp are willing to return to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)-SP, Sharad Pawar on Tuesday clarified that those who wanted to “weaken” the party would not be taken in.

However, the veteran NCP leader added that those MLAs who would not “hurt” the image of the party would be taken back, but after having a word with the party leaders and workers.

Addressing the media in Maharashtra’s Mumbai, Sharad Pawar said, “Those who wanted to weaken the party would not be taken in. But those leaders who would help strengthen the organisation and not hurt the image of the party would be taken in.”

“However, that too will happen after having a word with the party (NCP-SP) leaders and workers,” he added.

Following the Ajit Pawar camp’s poor showing in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls, there is growing speculation that some of the MLAs of the camp are willing to return to the NCP-SP ahead of the state assembly polls. The NCP bagged only one of the four seats it contested, whereas the NCP-SP won eight of the 10 seats it contested.

The Mahayuti alliance — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and the NCP — collectively bagged 17 seats in Maharashtra with the BJP securing nine seats and the Shiv Sena seven.

The leaders of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP were reportedly upset over being offered only a post of Minister of State (MoS) in the Modi 3.0 cabinet.

NCP leader Praful Patel had been offered the post of MoS, however, he turned it down saying that accepting the position of Minister of State with independent charge in the Union Cabinet would be considered a demotion for him, as he was earlier a Cabinet Minister at the centre.

During the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, under the leadership of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Patel was the cabinet minister for the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

Earlier, Ajit Pawar had said that his party is going to wait for the BJP to change its offer.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Reacting sharply to an activist’s claims that he had called the Pune police commissioner to “pressure him” after the accident in which a 17-year-old had killed two techies in their 20s in his Porsche, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said he is ready to undergo a narco test to prove his innocence but asked whether the person making the allegation was ready to take ‘sanyas’ (lead a life of renunciation) if he is proven innocent. 

Activist Anjali Damania has alleged that Mr Pawar had called Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar after the Porsche accident and the deputy chief minister had, on Monday, said he had done so to ensure that the senior cop did not give in to any pressure. 

“As a people’s representative, we receive calls regarding such accidents. I had called the police commissioner and told him that the accused boy was from a wealthy family and there was a chance the police might be pressured. I told him not to succumb to any political pressure,” the NCP leader was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

When he was asked about the activist claiming that the calls were made to favour the accused and demanding that his phone records be checked, Mr Pawar said in Marathi, “I am ready for a narco test but, if I am cleared, you (Ms Damania) should stay quiet at home and take ‘sanyas’. Is she ready for that?”

Colleagues In Dock Too

The deputy chief minister’s comments came on a day when the dean of Sassoon Hospital –  where two doctors were arrested for allegedly replacing the teenager’s blood samples to ensure that no alcohol was detected in them – claimed that a minister and an MLA from Mr Pawar’s party had written a letter asking for one of the doctors to be made the head of the forensics department. 

Dr Vinayak Kale claimed that the letter was written by Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif and MLA Sunil Tingre in favour of Dr Ajay Tawade, who was suspended as the head of the hospital’s Forensic Medicine Department on Wednesday . Mr Tingre is already in the eye of a storm for visiting the police station where the teenager was taken after the accident on May 19 to allegedly pressure officials into going easy on the case. 

Dr Kale was later sent on compulsory leave by the Maharashtra government for “failing to take the case seriously” and “not taking proper decisions” as the dean.

On May 18, the 17-year-old son of a prominent Pune realtor had gone partying – in a Rs 2.5-crore Porsche – with his friends to celebrate his Class 12 results. They went to two pubs and drank illegally, paying a bill of Rs 48,000 at one of them.

The teen then got into the Porsche with two of his friends and crashed into a scooter in Kalyani Nagar at a speed of at least 150 kmph in the early hours of May 19, killing two 24-year-old IT professionals on the spot. Aneesh Awadhiya, who was riding the bike was sent flying and hit a parked car, while Ashwini Koshta – who was riding pillion – was flung 20 feet into the air. 

The teenager had got bail the same day and was asked to write a 300-word essay as one of the conditions. Three days later, after nationwide outrage, he was sent to a remand home till June 5. 

Pune:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said that his decision to join the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was not a compulsion or a compromise, adding that his idea of development aligns with the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a candid conversation with the news agency ANI during which he shared his thoughts in the lead-up to his floating a rival NCP alliance with his loyalists and eventually joining the ruling NDA in the state as the deputy chief minister, Mr Pawar said, “There was no compulsion and neither was it compromise. I always think about development. Who is driving the country’s development today? It is PM Modi. I worked against him in 2014 and 2019 (Lok Sabha elections), but if you see today, and as PM Modi, himself said yesterday (on the campaign trail in Maharashtra), we accomplished the same amount of work in one year as was done in the 10 years under (former PM) Manmohan Singh. He has also been working for the upliftment and well-being of the poor and backward sections. In the last 10 years, not one allegation has been levelled against PM Modi.”

Triggering another seismic event in the landscape of Maharashtra politics on July 2 last year, the nephew of NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar floated a rival faction, which joined the BJP-led NDA.

Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister for the fifth time.

Claiming that the Opposition bloc — INDIA — had no prime ministerial face, he said there was no one who could rival PM Modi on the yardsticks of leadership and popularity.

“More than 65 per cent of people in the country are saying that they want PM Modi to return for a third term. There was a lot of talk around Nitish Kumar (rivalling PM Modi for the country’s most powerful post) in 2019 but he is with the NDA now. Presently, the Opposition has no one to take on PM Modi. There is simply no comparison between him and Rahul Gandhi,” the NCP leader said.

The deputy CM said the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ (alliance of the BJP, the Shiv Sena under Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s NCP) was formed to take the agenda of ‘development’ of the state forward.

“Everyone (in his NCP faction) took the decision (to join the NDA) collectively. It wasn’t motivated by a desire to be ministers but to take the agenda of the development of Maharashtra forward. I have said this time and time again that the decision was for the sake of development and nothing else,” Ajit Pawar said.

He added that people across the country have made up their minds to bring the BJP-led NDA under PM Modi back for a third term at the Centre.

“The people are giving a rousing reception to PM Modi wherever he goes. He has been asking the people to demonstrate their electoral support for his vision and agenda of development. He has been telling the people why they should vote for us. It’s clear that the people have made up their minds to bring him back for a third term,” the deputy CM said.

A total of 11 Lok Sabah seats in Maharashtra will be polling in the third phase on May 7.

Of the 48 seats, voting for 13 was completed in the first and second phases.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)