Several Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and Corporators from Pimpri Chinchwad joined Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SCP at his residence in Pune on Wednesday, July 17. NCP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit chief, Ajit Gavhane is also among the leaders who joined the party. Three other senior leaders of NCP's Pimpri-Chinchwad unit also quit the party yesterday.
A day after resigning from Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Ajit Gavhane who was the NCP’s Pimpri-Chinchwad unit chief, said, "I resigned yesterday, today we will have a meeting with all ex-corporators of another Vidhan Sabha constituency. We will then decide on our upcoming strategy. Today, we are going to seek blessings of Pawar Sahab (Sharad Pawar). We will make a decision together. With me, Rahul Bhosale, Yash Sane and Pankaj Bhalekar have also resigned."
"If you look at Pimpri Chinchwad city, it was developed very well and Ajit Pawar had a great contribution towards it. But since 2017, BJP started holding PCMC (Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) and since then development has been taking place in a wrongful manner. If you look at another constituency, the kind of development that has taken place shows that wrong things have taken place here. There has been corruption too. Sitting MLA is responsible for it," Gavhane added.
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On several Ajit Pawar-led NCP leaders and Corporators from Pimpri Chinchwad joining Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SCP, party working president said, "I think everyone has different experiences in the party. We never let our ideology, and the ideology of development diminish. Pawar Sahab has been working continuously for the last 60 years in Maharashtra and at Centre, for development. We believe in the ideology of Pawar Sahab but others too look at him with great hopes and are therefore joining him."
"In Lok Sabha elections, the NCP led by Ajit Pawar performed very badly. All those who went with him saw defeat. Now, all those people who went with him are saying that if they stick with Ajit Pawar then they might lose the upcoming elections...Before Assembly elections, many people may leave Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde," said NCP(SCP) leader and National Spokesperson Clyde Crasto.
"This shows that the BJP does not need Ajit Pawar ji or his team anymore. BJP broke parties and families in the quest to gain some votes. The people of Maharashtra have proved which is the real NCP. It is the one led by Sharad Pawar....The people have also shown which is the real Shiv Sena- the one led by Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray. BJP has realised that taking Ajit Pawar means a loss to them. Even people within the Ajit Pawar camp are realising that they have made a mistake by joining him. I think in times to come BJP wants Ajit Pawar away from them and finding reasons to say that they are in trouble," Crasto on article in RSS-linked weekly, ascribing BJP’s LS polls performance in Maharashtra to the alliance with Ajit Pawar's NCP.