Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Harshvardhan Patil on Tuesday met NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar in Pune amid speculation of a possible switch ahead of the assembly election. Patil, a former MLA from Indapur in Pune district, met Pawar at the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) in Pune.
Speculation is rife that Patil, who joined the BJP from the Congress before the 2019 assembly election, might switch over to the NCP (SP) after indications that the Indapur constituency was likely to be retained by the ruling NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in seat-sharing among Mahayuti allies.
Dattatray Bharne of the NCP is the sitting MLA from Indapur. Patil, president of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, is also a council member of the VSI, of which Pawar is chairman. The BJP leader said he had come to Pune for the tri-monthly meeting of the VSI and no political discussion took place during his meeting with Pawar.
“Pawar saheb is the chairman of the institute and I am a member of the governing council. The meeting is held every three months, but due to the Lok Sabha election, it was not conducted for many months. We had discussions about the institute only,” he said.
Sources, however, claimed that the two leader also met after the VSI meeting. Patil recently said in an interview to a news channel that when Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar, was given ticket from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat in Pune district, the deputy CM had sought his support in the poll campaign.
He had then said that whatever decision that Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis takes on the Indapur assembly seat, it would be acceptable for him.
“However, Ajit Pawar [who heads NCP] has been stating nowadays that their sitting MLAs will be given tickets. If this is the scenario, what will people from my constituency will do?” he had said in the interview.
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Asked if Ajit Pawar is giving clear indications to retain the Indapur seat for the NCP, Patil on Tuesday pointed out that no party in the ruling Mahayuti alliance has made any official announcement on seat-sharing so far. “It is to be seen what decision Fadnavisji takes as far as the Indapur seat is concerned,” he said.
