MUMBAI: Taking a potshot at the BJP, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that he is sharing power with those who made allegations of a Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam against him.
Pawar, who was in Pune, defended fielding candidates who are allegedly involved in several serious crimes. Local BJP leaders raised this issue ahead of the civic polls campaign in Pune.
In a strong reply, Ajit Pawar said that he does not believe in mere allegations of the political opponents, and today he is enjoying the power with those people who made the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam allegation against him.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as the erstwhile Opposition leader, was at the forefront to level the irrigation scam allegation against Ajit Pawar when he was the irrigation minister in the Congress and NCP regimes. Fadnavis even rode a bullock-cart with suitcases containing documents as evidence against Ajit Pawar and his involvement in the Rs 70,000 irrigation scam. Today, Fadnavis is the CM while Ajit Pawar is his deputy in the Mahayuti government.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also raised the irrigation scam issue against Ajit Pawar in his speeches during the election campaign. However, ever since Pawar joined the BJP-led NDA, BJP leaders are defending him, saying there were only allegations that were not proved legally.
Ajit Pawar also alleged that large-scale corruption took place during the BJP’s tenure in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, draining the civic body’s exchequer. He claimed that funds were withdrawn without due deliberation and spent on projects whose costs later escalated manifold, which, he said, clearly pointed to major corruption in projects undertaken under the BJP-led administration in the municipal corporation.
With the Ajit Pawar-led NCP emerging as the BJP’s main opponent in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections this time, the two parties are locked in a direct confrontation in both civic body polls.