‘If you reject, I will also reject. You have votes, I have funds’: Ajit Pawar tells voters

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday told voters in Malegaon that development funds for the region would be assured only if they elected candidates from his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party in the local body elections, The Indian Express reported.

“I will ensure there is no shortage of funds if you elect all 18 NCP candidates,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “If you elect all 18 candidates, I am committed to give whatever I have promised. But if you reject, I will also reject. You have votes, I have funds.”

Pawar is the finance minister in the Mahayuti coalition government. The polls will take place on December 2.

On Sunday, Pawar defended his comments, NDTV reported.

“The opponents have a right to criticise,” he said. “I don't give importance to allegations...Everyone has the right to speak. The public decides whose comments must be given importance.”

Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction criticised the comment by Pawar, PTI reported.

“How is this happening in a democratic country?” Sule asked. “We must ask the Election Commission.”

Opposition leader Ambadas Danve of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) accused Pawar of threatening voters, stating that public funds come from taxpayers and “not from Ajit Pawar's house”, PTI reported.

“If a leader like Pawar is threatening voters, what is the Election Commission doing?” Danve asked.

A similar row had erupted in April 2024 when Pawar said that development funds would be released only if voters backed the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections.

“But if we are giving funds, we expect you to press the button next to our candidate's symbol [on the Electronic Voting Machine] in the elections so that I will feel good about giving funds,” he had said in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency at the time. “Otherwise, my hand will be restricted.”

The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Office had at the time ordered a probe into the remark.

Sule defeated Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar in the Baramati seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Source: Scroll
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