Unease in NCP over Amit Shah’s “ringleader of corruption” remark against Sharad Pawar
Former legislator from Pimpri-Chinchwad Vilas Lande wrote a letter to the BJP state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule urging the party to avoid such remarks.
A day after Amit Shah launched a scathing attack on Sharad Pawar and dubbed him “ringleader of corruption”, there was unease among Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, who feared such comments may result in sympathy for NCP (SP) chief.
Former legislator from Pimpri-Chinchwad Vilas Lande, seen to be close to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, expressed unhappiness over Shah’s remarks. He also wrote a letter to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule urging the party to avoid such remarks.
“Before Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted Sharad Pawar calling him ‘bhatakti aatma’ (wandering soul) which resulted in sympathy for the leader. Such remarks against the 84-year-old are not appropriate,” said Lande.
Another NCP legislator from Pimpri Anna Bansode also took objection to the remarks and said, “Sharad Pawar is revered figure in Maharashtra and the statement by Amit Shah was inappropriate.”
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Another leader from Ajit Pawar’s party who wished not to be named, said, Sharad Pawar has not been in power for more than 10 years now and such a personalised criticism against him may backfire in polls.
“We saw what happened in the Lok Sabha elections when such comments were made against him. The remarks clearly backfired as Mahayuti lost many seats in Western Maharashtra including Baramati,” said the leader who has served as Member of Parliament previously.
Supriya Sule, executive president NCP (SP), questioned the home minister asking why Modi government felicitated Pawar with Padm Vibhushan if was so corrupt.
Sule said, “Many people accused of corruption by the BJP are now part of the party.”
The BJP on the other hand plans to amplify Shah’s remarks. Dheeraj Ghate, chief of Pune unit, said, “The party has planned to publish documents of alleged corruption cases with link to Sharad Pawar and distribute them to voters ahead of polls.”
Shah was addressing the BJP’s state convention in Pune on Sunday when he said, “If there is the biggest ‘sargana’ (ringleader) of corruption in Indian politics, it is Sharad Pawar. There is no confusion in my mind about this. I am saying it openly that Pawar has institutionalised corruption in the country,” he said, as he accused the veteran politician of doing nothing for the country’s welfare and Maharashtra when he was in power
This was Shah’s first visit to the state after the BJP suffered severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, where its tally tumbled to nine from 23 seats in 2019.