Big blow to Ajit Pawar's NCP in Maharashtra as several leaders quit party, joins Sharad Pawar
On July 15, Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal met National Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and said that the alleged clashes between Maratha and OBC people over reservation can be stopped if all parties come together.
In a big blow to Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the party's Pimpri-Chinchwad chief, Ajit Gavhane, resigned from his post on Tuesday (July 16) and submitted his resignation letter to party president Sunil Tatkare. Along with Ajit Gavhane, two former corporators and several other party leaders from Pimpri Chinchwad also sent their resignation letters to Sunil Tatkare.
Ajit Gavhane speaks about his resignation
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.
In Pimpri Chinchwad, several workers, office bearers and former corporators of the Ajit Pawar faction joined Sharad Pawar faction.
Here are the names of office bearers of Pimpri Chinchwad who joined the Sharad Pawar faction today (July 17).
- Ajit Gavane - City President
- Rahul Jadhav - Working President
- Hanumant Bhosle - Former Mayor
- Vaishali Ghodekar - Former Mayor
- Sameer Masulkar - Ex-Corporator
- Pankaj Bhalekar - Ex-Corporator
- Sameer Wable - Ex-Corporator
- Geeta Mancharkar - Former Corporator
- Vaishali Ubale - East Corporator
- Shubhangi Borhade - East Corporator
- Vinaya Tapkir - East Corporator
- Sangeeta Tamhane - Former Councillor
- Vasant Borhate - East Corporator
- Sanjay Newale - Former Corporator
- Praveen Bhalekar - Ex-Corporator
- Nivritti Shinde - Former Chairman, Board of Education
Chhagan Bhujbal meets Sharad Pawar
On Monday (July 15), Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal met National Congress Party (SCP) chief Sharad Pawar and said that the alleged clashes between Maratha and OBC people over reservation can be stopped if all parties come together.
This was the first meeting of Chhagan Bhujbal with Sharad Pawar after the NCP split in July last year. After meeting with Pawar, Bhujbal said, "NCP-SCP Chief Sharad Pawar knows how the people of different communities are living in villages. I told him that there are clashes in villages in connection with the Maratha reservation. This can be stopped if leaders of all parties come together, otherwise, the situation will keep worsening. He (Sharad Pawar) said he would speak to CM Shinde and try to bring out a solution."
"I can meet PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, or LoP Rahul Gandhi for OBC reservation; I am ready to do anything to solve this issue," he added.
The Maharashtra Minister also mentioned that he requested Sharad Pawar's intervention in the matter, as he is one of the leaders in Maharashtra, who understands the issue better.
"Maratha community people and OBC community have extremely bad feelings about each other and in several parts of Maharashtra, they are also not visiting each other's houses. Due to the ongoing reservation conflict. I requested Sharad Pawar Sahib's intervention in the matter because he is one of the leaders in Maharashtra, who understands the issue better," Chhagan Bhujbal said.