2024-07-22 18:48:07
Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday announced that his party will contest the upcoming civic polls in Maharashtra independently. The announcement comes amid reports of local leaders and workers switching sides after the NCP’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Ajit Pawar, who is facing the challenge of proving his political might in the upcoming assembly elections, said that the local leadership should work hard in their respective areas to strengthen the party.What did Ajit Pawar say?
Addressing the city unit of NCP, Ajit Pawar said that we fought the Lok Sabha elections in alliance and will fight the assembly elections in alliance too. He said that although we are allies in the Lok Sabha and state assembly, the members of the Mahayuti are free to fight the local body elections alone. I want to announce that the party will fight the body elections independently.
when will the municipal elections be held
The local bodies include Nagar Palika Parishad, Nagar Panchayat and Zilla Parishad. The schedule for the local body elections has not been finalised yet. The ruling Mahayuti alliance comprises the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar.
Most party workers remain with NCP
Pawar said some local leaders in Pimpri Chinchwad left the party as they felt there were limits to their development due to the NCP’s alliance with other political parties. He said local leaders left but most party workers remained with the NCP. He said the decision to join the NDA was taken solely with the intention of the overall development of the state. He said rumours being spread about local party leaders leaving the party are false and the same happened with city NCP chief Deepak Mankar.
Denial of stopping Sharad Pawar from speaking
Ajit Pawar said that whenever the local body elections are held, new and old faces from all sections of the society will be fielded. He denied that he had prevented Sharad Pawar from speaking at the Pune District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) meeting on Saturday. In fact, Baramati MP Supriya Sule had claimed that Ajit Pawar had objected to her father asking questions about the distribution of development funds in the meeting.