Maharashtra assembly elections: All is well, says Ajit Pawar

Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar addresses the media at Churchgate on Friday

"All is well," said deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, while describing the Mahayuti ahead of the Assembly polls. He dismissed news reports that he was upset and stormed out of the cabinet meeting on Thursday because of differences with the chief minister.

Pawar was taking questions after inducting movie star Sayaji Shinde into the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday evening. "The news reports are absolutely false," he said, admitting that he did leave the meeting after clearing important decisions that were already known to him as the finance minister.

"Every cabinet proposal is signed by me [as the FM], chief secretary, the CM and DyCM [Devendra Fadnavis]. I left because I had to catch a flight to attend a farmers' rally in Latur. There is no tension in the government. All is well," he added.

Actor Sayaji Shinde is inducted into the NCP by the senior leader. PICS/ATUL KAMBLE

Asked about the finance department's remarks on the proposals, he said it was their job to write what the department feels (as an individual entity). "But it is the cabinet that takes the final call and decides for the entire state. Unlike what is being said, the situation is such that we will succeed in managing the state finances in the future. Our debt is within a stipulated limit," he said, while commenting on the observation that the financial burden that a spate of decisions was to mount on the treasury.

Pawar also dismissed the Opposition's charge that the government owed contractors Rs 40,000 crore in pending bills. "It cannot be like this. It never was now and then. Every Opposition makes such allegations [ahead of polls]," he said. Talking about the election preparations, the chief of the NCP faction said that the Lok Sabha was the first joint assignment for the three parties of Mahayuti. According to him, the BJP-Sena-NCP would announce their seat-sharing formula soon.

"We have arranged to ensure that the mistakes of the Lok Sabha elections are not repeated in the Vidhan Sabha poll. The Haryana results have proved exit polls wrong. The SCs supported the BJP there. We, in Mahayuti, will also try to take the SCs along in Maharashtra," he said, as he underlined his party's secular credentials.

"Ever since I joined the government, more and more decisions have been made about the welfare of Muslims and other minorities. Our line is to maintain our secular ideology," he stated further.

Sayaji, the star campaigner

Sayaji Shinde, who works extensively through his green NGO Sahyadri Devrai for forestation in the Western Ghats and elsewhere on barren mountains and plains, will be the NCP's star campaigner in the Assembly elections. He is a native of western Maharashtra where politics is heated up these days because of the NCP split and the factions' game of oneupmanship in the sugar belt.

"Ajit dada works for all. His decisions are good for the people. I have decided to take the plunge [into politics]. I will not hesitate henceforth. Whatever happens, happens," said the actor, who is equally popular for his character/negative roles in Bollywood and Tollywood movies.