Mumbai: The NCP led by Ajit Pawar is certain to win the prestigious Baramati Lok Sabha seat, according to Brijmohan Shrivastav, national general secretary of the party.
During an interaction held at the FPJ office on Monday, he said even though sitting MP Supriya Sule was elected thrice from this seat and Sharad Pawar dominated the scene earlier, ground level work was done all these years by Ajit Pawar and his supporters. Apart from this Sunetra, wife of Ajit Pawar and the NCP (Ajit Pawar) candidate, has done a lot of social work in the area in the past and enjoyed tremendous goodwill. All these factors will help Sunetra win the closely contested poll, he added.
Replying to a question, Srivastav said the NCP (Ajit Pawar)’s commitment to secularism was intact and was not diluted by its association with the BJP. He pointed out that his party was the only political organisation which had unequivocally condemned Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
He said during Ramzan his party had organised a big iftar party at the Islamic Centre in New Delhi and it was attended by the Palestinian ambassador to India and several envoys of Islamic countries. The party’s minority department continued to be active and was in touch with Muslim masses. All these did not affect its ties with the BJP in any way.
He said the relationship between the NCP (Ajit Pawar) and the BJP was based on a common minimum programme and that did not adversely impact his party’s ideology.
Asked about the allegations of corruption of Rs70,000 crore against Ajit Pawar, Srivastav said it was absurd that a scam of this scale can take place in a department which had a budget of only Rs13,000 crore. He said a detailed probe had found that there was no scam whatsoever. Those making the allegation were politically motivated.
He said the NCP (Ajit Pawar) was seeking votes on the basis of the performance of the MahaYuti government and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
