No clue why Ajit resigned from assembly: NCP chief
MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar resigned as a member of the Maharashtra assembly on Friday evening ahead of state elections due less than a month away, as he confronts a money-laundering probe in connection with financial irregularities to the tune of ~25,000 crore at Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank, in which he is a director.
Pawar, a nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who has also been named in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), went incommunicado after submitting his resignation. Sharad Pawar said Ajit Pawar had resigned because he was upset that he (Sharad Pawar) had been dragged into the case
“He (Ajit) didn’t inform me before or after submitting his resignation. He also could not be contacted. I came to know from his son that Ajit was upset as ED included my name in the probe and is of the belief that it is going on because of him. He was so upset that he is thinking of retiring from politics and planning to do some farming business. He has also suggested to his son to leave politics as its level has gone down too low,” Pawar said in Pune.
The NCP chief denied rumours of a rift between him and Ajit Pawar. “There is nothing like a rift in the family. Being the head of the family, all decisions taken by me are respected by all. We all are together and will continue to remain together,” Pawar told reporters after visiting areas hit by a cloudburst that triggered flooding in Pune this week.
Ajit Pawar, a six-term MLA from Baramati constituency, submitted his resignation to speaker Haribhau Bagade on Friday before going incommunicado; the resignation was accepted by the latter.
Sharad Pawar had recently taken exception to an announceMUMBAI:AMID high-voltage drama, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday dropped his plan to visit the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai, giving in to requests by the agency and Mumbai police to ensure that law and order isn’t undermined.
A day after the ED registered a money laundering case against Pawar and others, Pawar on Wednesday announced plans to visit the ED office on Friday afternoon, supposedly to demonstrate that he had done no wrong and make the case a
ment by his nephew that the NCP would now display saffron flags along with its tricolour at party rallies. Pawar said the decision to use saffron flags was taken by Ajit Pawar in his personal capacity and not by the party.
Before the Lok Sabha polls, Ajit Pawar had insisted on his son Parth contesting the Maval seat in Pune. Sharad Pawar, who was not in favour of Parth fighting the election, announced then that he rallying point for his party ahead of next month’s Maharashtra assembly election.
The case was linked to alleged financial irregularities to the tune of ₹25,000crore in the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank case.
The ED sent him an email that there was no need for him to come to the office, NCP Mumbai president Nawab Malik said, which was followed up by Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Barve. “I have decided not to go to the ED office,” Pawar said.
was withdrawing from the poll fray himself because he did not want three people from the same family seeking election to Parliament. Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule won election from Baramati; Parth Pawar lost.
Parth Pawar said his father was hurt by the kind of politics being waged in the state, but said the latter was not quitting politics. “He advised me to avoid politics,”he told journalists in Pune.