Ajit holds grand roadshow at Nashik, scatters promises

In his speech at the rally attended by farmers and tribals, Ajit announced ₹494 crore worth of development projects for the constituency held by party MLA Nitin Pawar. “The local MLA has requested that Surgana be made a tourism spot on the lines of Saputara in Gujarat

Mumbai: Even as the Election Commission (EC) began hearing the dispute between the two rival NCP factions vis-à-vis the name and symbol of the party, the leader of the rebel group’s MLAs and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar put up a show of strength in Nashik on Saturday. He also announced a few development projects for the district and assured the scheduled tribe citizens that their reservation would not be touched.

Ajit holds grand roadshow at Nashik, scatters promises

Ajit Pawar held a rally in Kalwan in the tribal part of the district before visiting the Saptashrungi temple for darshan. After his arrival at Ozar airport, his supporters organised a lavish welcome at various spots on the way to the rally. Tonnes of flowers were showered on him by earthmovers parked on either side of the road from where his fleet passed. There was also dissent—a group of onion and tomato farmers chucked their crop on the roads to protest against the fallen prices.

In his speech at the rally attended by farmers and tribals, Ajit announced ₹494 crore worth of development projects for the constituency held by party MLA Nitin Pawar. “The local MLA has requested that Surgana be made a tourism spot on the lines of Saputara in Gujarat,” he said. “It will be approved soon. Chief minister Eknath Shinde has also convened a meeting early next week to discuss the makeover of Saptashrungi temple, and that too will be cleared.”

Saptashrungi also figured in the address of assembly deputy speaker and Ajit faction MLA Narhari Zirwal, who declared at the rally that they would pray to the goddess to bless Ajit so that he could become the chief minister. “We should all pray for it and also ensure through hard work that he gets the top post,” he told the gathering. Zirwal’s public remarks came a day after the BJP’s state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that party workers would like to see Devendra Fadnavis as the CM.

Ajit said that the state government had been taking all the necessary steps to get the import duty imposed on onions withdrawn. “The lack of coordination in the cropping pattern leads to the fall in price,” he said. “This needs to be corrected. We have been talking to the central government to withdraw the import duty on onions. Farmers should restrain from hasty steps like destroying the crop.”

While addressing the tribal population, Ajit said that it should rest assured that no existing reservation would be touched. “There are misleading reports that lead to unrest,” he said. “I can assure you that no existing reservation quota for SC, ST or OBC will be disturbed. We will try to extend the limit of the quota to accommodate others, but the existing ones will not be touched.” The deputy CM was referring to the demand for the inclusion of the Dhangar (shepherd) community in the ST category.