Daijiworld Media Network – Pune
Pune, Jan 3: Taking a sharp dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said he is currently sharing power with the very leaders who once accused him of a Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam.
Speaking in Pune amid the ongoing civic poll campaign, Pawar defended his party’s decision to field candidates facing serious allegations, an issue raised by local BJP leaders ahead of the municipal elections. Pawar said he does not attach much importance to political allegations and pointed out the irony of the present political alignment.
“I don’t believe in mere allegations by political opponents. Today, I am enjoying power with the same people who levelled allegations of a Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam against me,” Pawar remarked.
He recalled that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, had spearheaded the attack against him over the alleged scam during his tenure as irrigation minister under the Congress-NCP governments. Fadnavis had even staged protests, including riding a bullock cart with suitcases claimed to contain documentary evidence against Pawar. Today, Fadnavis is the chief minister, while Pawar serves as his deputy in the Mahayuti government.
Pawar also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repeatedly raised the irrigation scam allegations against him during earlier election campaigns. However, he claimed that after he joined the BJP-led NDA, the party leaders began maintaining that the charges were only allegations and were never legally proven.
Turning the tables, Pawar accused the BJP of large-scale corruption during its tenure in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. He alleged that civic funds were withdrawn without proper deliberation and spent on projects whose costs later escalated manifold, indicating serious financial irregularities under the BJP-led administration.
With the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) emerging as the BJP’s principal rival in the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic body elections, the two parties are now locked in a direct and high-stakes confrontation in both municipal polls.