Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar.
Credit: NCP
Pune: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said he did not request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold a campaign rally in his Baramati constituency because the fight there is within the family.
Pawar, the sitting MLA, is contesting against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, the candidate of the rival Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar.
The prime minister would be holding campaign rallies for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections starting Friday.
“Contest in Baramati is within the family,” Ajit told reporters here on Thursday when asked why the PM would not be holding a rally in his constituency.
The NCP led by Ajit Pawar is part of the ruling coalition along with the BJP and Shiv Sena.
Asked about NCP candidates also not seeking rallies of senior BJP leaders like Amit Shah in their constituencies, Pawar said it could be because there is not much time left for campaigning, and also due to the limit on election expenses.
Earlier in the day, when asked what would be his margin of victory in Baramati, the NCP chief said he would be able to tell that after moving around the constituency and talking to people. “But I can say with one hundred per cent certainty that it would be a good lead,” he said.
In the 2019 state elections, Ajit Pawar had won by a record 1.65 lakh votes, defeating BJP’s Gopichand Kundlik Padalkar.
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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