After the Election Commission (EC)’s decision to allot the name and symbol of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to the party faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the fight for possession of the city NCP office in Shivajinagar in Pune has begun. The office has been provided police protection to ensure there is no untoward incident.
The city NCP was a divided house after the split in the party with city NCP chief Prashant Jagtap, Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan, several former legislators and corporators staying with senior Pawar while two sitting legislators and some former corporators extended support to Ajit Pawar. Thus, while the Ajit Pawar faction appointed Deepak Mankar as the city unit chief, the party office remained with the Sharad Pawar faction as Jagtap decided to stay with senior Pawar.
On Wednesday, Jagtap led by party workers staged a protest against the EC decision and some party supporters removed the plaque of Ajit Pawar from the office premises and broke it with a hammer. This didn’t go down well with the Ajit Pawar faction, as former corporator Datta Sagare reached the city NCP office premises to protest against it, but Jagtap calmed him saying it was done by a few angry supporters without his knowledge and that he had expressed displeasure over it.
Meanwhile, the city police deployed police personnel at the premises on Wednesday night. Jagtap alleged, “The city unit chief of the Ajit Pawar faction made a statement about taking possession of the party office. The property has been taken on rent in my name and not that of the party, so no one else can stake claim or take possession of it. The rent agreement is still not over.”
“Those making statements about taking possession of the party office are well-known for forcibly taking possession of others’ property,” Jagtap said, adding that even making such statements is not good and people don’t accept this kind of behaviour from political leaders.
Earlier, Mankar said the action by supporters of the Sharad Pawar faction to break the plaque with Ajit Pawar’s name was not in good taste. “Ajit Pawar is our party president and has won the hearts of people. The Sharad Pawar faction should learn to accept defeat in political life and instead ensure they do not lose their remaining supporters to us,” he said.
Mankar said Jagtap had cheated the party by having the agreement of property for party office in his name instead of party name. “The rent agreement will expire soon and now Jagtap should see whether he will be able to retain its possession. He should see whether the owner will extend the agreement with him or not. Who knows whether the owner might have an agreement with us or not but in future Jagtap will not get this office for sure,” he said.
