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Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar has courted a fresh controversy. He is alleged to have threatened villagers in Baramati on Wednesday night, the eve of polling, to cut off their water supply if they did not vote for his cousin and party nominee Supriya Sule.
This has prompted the Aam Aadmi Party candidate, former police officer Suresh Khopde, to file a complaint against Pawar at the Election Commission (EC) and also at the Vadgaon police station in Baramati taluka. Khopde has cited a video tape of Pawar addressing the residents of Masalwadi village. Khopde told Business Standard: “The officials will take necessary action against Ajit Pawar.”
The Election Commission has taken cognizance of Pawar’s alleged statement. “We have asked the returning officer and state election commissioner for a report. A decision will be taken after examining the issue,” an EC official said in Delhi.
Further, Dilip Khaire, a polling agent of Mahadeo Jankar of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and contesting the Lok Sabha elections as an ally of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine against Sule, has also registered a complaint with election officials in Baramati.
Despite repeated attempts, Pawar was unavailable for comment.
NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said everybody had the right to make a complaint but it was left to the authority concerned to take a decision.
This is not the lone incident where Pawar has landed himself and his party in trouble.
In October last year, Pawar, who is NCP chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's nephew, had created a controversy after he said rapists deserved no mercy and should be hanged. The Opposition had slammed Pawar, calling his remarks “Talibani”.
In April last year, Pawar ridiculed a farmer who was on a fast for 55 days, demanding the release of water from a dam for his scorched field. “Should we urinate into it? If there is no water to drink, even urination is not possible,” Pawar observed. His statement stirred a hornet’s nest after the Opposition demanded his resignation.
Pawar senior had to intervene and publicly snubbed his nephew. The NCP chief termed Ajit Pawar’s urine remarks “improper” and “inappropriate”. Pawar ultimately apologised and conducted a day-long fast at the Yashwantrao Chavan Samadhi Sthal at Karad in Satara district, to self-introspect and repent for his controversial comment.
