Speculation over all's not well after Ajit Pawar, Eknath Shinde skip each other's events
Kolhapur: Both deputy chief ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar have skipped events hosted by each other in the past few days. This has given rise to speculation that all is not well between them.
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Pawar skipped the inaugural event of the tourism festival at Mahabaleshwar on May 2. Then, Shinde skipped Pawar's
Gauravshali Maharashtra event
held in Mumbai on May 3, where Shinde was among the former state chief ministers to be felicitated.
At that event, Pawar had expressed displeasure over Shinde's absence, stating that Shinde should not send his emissary if he was unable to come. Pawar also skipped Sunday evening's concluding ceremony of the tourism festival.
At that event, Shinde's close aide minister Shamburaj Desai said that if Pawar had come, it would have been easy to get assurances for funds for development of Mahabaleshwar.
Later, on Monday morning, minister Pratap Sarnaik tried to dismiss "all is not well" rumours between the two deputy CMs.
Tourism minister Shamburaj Desai said, "The chief minister and both deputy chief ministers have given me a free hand to boost tourism.
If Ajit Pawar had been here, his finance ministry would have lessened the burden for us, and we could arrange two such mega festivals every year. But Makarand Aba (Makarand Patil, NCP minister) is here. We will take him to meet the finance minister whenever needed."
On Monday, transport minister Pratap Sarnaik, who was sent by Shinde as his emissary for Ajit Pawar's event, said, "Eknath Shinde was at his village Dare, which is near Mahabaleshwar, and therefore he could not show up for Ajit Pawar's event.
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Ajit Pawar also had some other event lined up, and therefore he could not visit Mahabaleshwar. We are a Mahayuti govt, and all three are glued to each other."
NCP veteran and minister Hasan Mushrif said that Ajit Pawar was busy with his schedule and therefore could not visit Mahabaleshwar for the concluding ceremony of the tourism festival. He, however, said that Shinde should have shown up at Gauravshali Maharashtra event, which was to felicitate living former chief ministers, and the event was not political.
Meanwhile,
social justice minister Sanjay Shirsat
attacked Ajit Pawar for allegedly diverting funds from his department to Ladki Bahin Yojana. Responding to the allegations, NCP senior leader and minister Hasan Mushrif said that Shirsat was new to the cabinet and should have held a meeting with finance officials before attacking Pawar in public.
"In reality, Ajit Pawar cannot bring money from the sky. Nor did he take the money home.
The Ladki Bahin scheme was launched when Eknath Shinde was the chief minister. It is true that the state's finances are strained. This time, we could release the April dole in the first week of May. When we all have decided to run the scheme, and if for that funds are used, then it is the responsibility of all of us," said Mushrif.
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