Ajit Pawar (file photo)
Maharashtra politics has taken up a storm due to comments made by Yogi Adityanath, star BJP campaigner and UP chief minister. During the campaign in Maharashtra, Yogi repeatedly made the statement “if we are divided, we will be cut”, which was followed by Ajit Pawar’s strong objection. Surprisingly, Ajit Pawar joined the alliance in questioning the slogan of the BJP leader. Over the past few days, there have been rumors of a disagreement in tone between leaders Ajit Pawar and Mahayutthi.
Now opposing CM Yogi’s statement, Ajit Pawar said Maharashtra is the land of Shivaji, Ambedkar, Shahuji Maharaj. Don’t compare Maharashtra with other states. Maharashtra never likes this, the people of Maharashtra have always maintained the caste equation and made everyone accept the ideology of Shiv, Shahu, Ambedkar, Phule. People outside come and go to express their views and Maharashtra has never accepted this.
The two alliances in the Maharashtra elections – Mahayutthi and Mahavika Aghadi – have neither ideological similarity nor unity of principles and ideology. Both alliances are just for power. No one can say with any qualification whether the parties on both sides of the coalition will remain united after the election results are announced, or whether they will switch from one side to the other. Beyond this, leaders and MLAs who win the election will either stay with the same party and use the symbol they were campaigning on, or move to another party after the election results.
Why was Pawar angry at Yogi’s remarks?
Ajit Pawar felt uncomfortable because his entire political stance so far had been against communism. On top of that, there are a large number of minorities among his supporters and candidates. Ajit Pawar fielded Muslim candidates such as Sanah Malik, Nawab Malik, Hasan Mushriff and others. Ajit Pawar, who gave his ticket to Nawab Malik even after clashing with the BJP, said in his constituency yesterday, I am not the candidate of the BJP or Mahayutty, Mahayutthi’s candidate is against me here and the Maharashtra Development Party is. Also fight. I am not from Mahayuti, I am Ajit Pawar NCP candidate. This happens in every third and fourth district. In this case, Ajit Pawar cannot support Yogi Adityanath’s statement during the elections.
Apart from this, Ajit Pawar suffered in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada as he supported the BJP and the Sindh bloc in the Lok Sabha elections. The basic vote banks of the NCP are Maratha, Kunbi and Muslim vote banks. Nearly 15% of Muslims live in Marathwada so Ajit Pawar has suffered the most, which is why Ajit Pawar immediately distanced himself from Yogi’s statement and said that this statement is in the Maharaja Strabon doesn’t work.
Ajit Pawar knows that this is an election that is about his existence. This is an election that will let the public know the real NCP and the fake NCP. Because he is lagging behind in the Lok Sabha elections, how can he lead in the assembly elections? So we developed a strategy. Ajit Pawar gave out votes to 10% Muslim candidates and his whole focus was to keep Muslim voters with him.
Agree with the BJP!
A leader issued a statement against Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar strongly criticized him and complained about it to senior BJP leaders. Ajit Pawar is completely alert this time, he had said on stage many times before the last Lok Sabha elections that Sharad Pawar should retire. Apart from this, the BJP also attacked Sharad Pawar but this time no leader from Marathwada and Western Maharashtra region said a word to Sharad Pawar as they knew People here respect Sharad Pawar a lot. Sharad Pawar has done a lot of work here.
In Ajit Pawar’s statement, he may also have support from the BJP as the BJP also knows that if there is polarization like last time and Ajit Pawar’s vote bank is not connected If they get up, it will cause them huge losses. After the Lok Sabha election results, Devendra Fadnavis said that Ajit Pawar’s votes were not transferred to the Mahayutty candidate and hence we suffered the maximum loss. This time we need to find how to cooperate. If the three of them cooperate, the ship of Mahayutti can be crossed.
What does the NCP think?
Reacting to Yogi’s statement, NCP spokesperson Brijmohan Srivastava said that the electorate in Maharashtra is secular and there is very little voting on religion here. A big example was the last election as Owaisi was in a lot of polls at that time. The localities fielded his candidates. He must face failure. In this context, Ajit Pawar told his colleagues that such remarks will not bring us the right results in Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar understands the voters of Maharashtra and it is his duty to warn his colleagues as we are all in the same boat.
At the same time, Mahayutthi will only raise such issues at the district level because whatever Yogi says, it is in the Vidarbha region and it is there that the BJP can be seen to have suffered the maximum losses. Caste equations were created there, people talked about the Constitution and as an antithesis, the slogan “from Bantenga to Katenga” was raised more there. In the Grand Alliance, Ajit Pawar has been given a lot of freedom to protect his vote bank and hence he is very vocal about his ideology.
