PUNE: Amid the swiftly changing allegiances among political leaders in Maharashtra, Bajrang Sonawane, previously aligned with Ajit Pawar’s faction within the NCP, made a significant move by joining Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday.
The event took place in Pune, with Sharad Pawar and State President Jayant Patil present.
Bajrang Sonwane, who hails from Beed district, Maharashtra, is considered to be the loyalist of Ajit Pawar and Dhananjay Munde after the split in NCP last year. When Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Grand Alliance government, Bajarang Sonwane came along with Ajit Pawar while he was the president of the NCP from Beed district.
Bajrang Sonawane had also contested against Pritam Munde in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Beed seat and had given a strong fight in the election.
During an event organised in Pune, NCP SP headquarters Bajrang Sonawane, along with his supporters, joined the Sharad Pawar.
While attending the gathering, Sonwane said, that he didn’t join the party with any expectations and added that he was ready to accept any responsibility that Sharad Pawar would give.
He also added that he will support any candidate the party nominates from Beed.
“I was always with the NCP; many party workers told me they felt suffocated on the other side; therefore, I came here on behalf of my supporters …I did not come here with any expectations. Whatever responsibility Pawar Saheb will give me, I will accept it without any hesitation. Whoever is the candidate from Beed, I will support them with full strength. Pawar Saheb had given me a ticket last time from Beed and considered me for the responsibility. I will always remain grateful to him,” Sonwane said.
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar, while addressing the party workers during the event, said, that the party’s senior leaders will sit and decide about fielding Bajrang Sonawane.
“Bajrang Sonawane, who was with us, decided to come back again. Last time, we gave him an opportunity to contest the Lok Sabha election from Beed, and he performed well. He lost with a very minor margin and got more than 5 lakh votes. Due to some local issues, he left us for some time. Therefore, it’s not appropriate to make a major political decision on just some local issue.”
Sharad Pawar thanked the party workers for their support and assured them that a decision regarding the Beed constituency candidate would be made after careful consideration by senior leaders.
“I want to thank all the karyakarta and Bajrang, as they assured me that they will support whoever will be the candidate in the upcoming election. The election has been announced but we still have one month to decide the candidate. There are many hard-working workers in Beed. Our senior leaders will sit and decide about it later,” Pawar added.
BJP has already announced the candidature of Pankaja Munde from the Beed Lok Sabha seat replacing sitting younger sister MP Pritam Munde who had won the seat in 2019 .
Pritam Munde is the BJP Leader and daughter of Late Gopinath Munde. (ANI)
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