I’m with Pawar saheb and NCP only: Chhagan Bhujbal

Meanwhile, the party has finalised names of the candidates for 104 Assembly seats. The party also decided that all its frontline leaders will contest the upcoming state Assembly elections. The decision was taken in the core committee meeting.

Amid speculation of him joining the Shiv Sena, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal attended the core committee meeting called by party chief Sharad Pawar in Pune on Friday. The move is being seen as an indication by former deputy chief minister that he will continue to stay in the party. He also refuted all the speculations saying that he is with the NCP.

Amid speculation of him joining the Shiv Sena, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal attended the core committee meeting called by party chief Sharad Pawar in Pune on Friday. (Hindustan Times)

Meanwhile, the party has finalised names of the candidates for 104 Assembly seats. The party also decided that all its frontline leaders will contest the upcoming state Assembly elections. The decision was taken in the core committee meeting.

“I am with NCP only. It was the media that started all the speculations about me. They need to disclose names of their sources for these stories. I am with saheb (Sharad Pawar) and have come to attend the meeting today,” Bhujbal told the media after arriving at Pune’s Baramati Hostel where the meeting was held.

Talks of Bhujbal and his son Pankaj joining the Sena ahead of the elections due in October have been doing the rounds for some time now.

Bhujbal started his political career with the Shiv Sena, but quit the party following differences with the late Sena founder Bal Thackeray. He joined the Congress in 1991 and later shifted to the NCP after Sharad Pawar left Congress to form his own political outfit in 1999.

Bhujbal has been facing money laundering charges and was arrested in March 2016 under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act. After spending two years in jail, he got released on bail in May 2018 on health grounds. His nephew, Sameer Bhujbal, too, was in jail for two years in the same case.

Bhujbal represents Yeola assembly constituency, while his son, Pankaj, is an MLA from Nandgaon Assembly constituency.

Both the seats are with the Shiv Sena in the seat-sharing agreement with its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We have finalised names of candidates on almost 104 assembly seats. The party will declare the names very soon,” said NCP spokesperson and Mumbai president Nawab Malik.

“The Congress has decided to give candidature to all its sitting MLAs, but the NCP is going is looking at every aspect that includes possible candidate of the ruling party based on which we will decide the candidature. On some seats, the party could finalise two names, which we will cleared in the next meeting,” said a senior leader who participated in the meeting.