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Mumbai: Ajit Pawar had personally requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not to speak against Sharad Pawar during the Pune rally before the Lok Sabha polls but he referred to him as ‘bhatakti aatma’ (wandering soul) and NCP (AP) suffered a huge blow. The deputy CM in Mahayuti government, Ajit Pawar said this at a meeting with his party leaders in Nashik district on Friday.
At a time when speculation is rife that Ajit may not contest the state assembly elections as a partner in Mahayuti, he is said to have bared his heart to party office bearers at Yeola. The meeting was attended by PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, NCP state unit chief Sunil Tatkare, ex MP Sameer Bhujbal, among others.
In Pune, when the PM’s rally was underway and CM Eknath Shinde rose to speak, Ajit Pawar sitting in another chair quickly moved closer to Modi and was seen saying something. During this brief interaction, he told him that Sharad Pawar enjoys a good following and a clout in local politics in four Lok Sabha constituencies in and around Pune.
Modi said, “Even when the Shiv Sena-BJP government came to power in 1995 the ‘bhatakti aatma’ was trying to destabilise the government. In 2019, he tried his best to destabilise the then government. Now after Maharashtra, he is trying to destabilise the country. Maharashtra needs to be protected from such ‘bhatakti atma’.”
