Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and guardian minister for the city of Pune Ajit Pawar was recently barred from speaking at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme at Dehu, where he inaugurated a shila (rock) temple at the Sant Tukaram Maharaj Mandir on June 14. At the event, leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis was present on stage along with Ajit Pawar. He was allowed to address the gathering while Pawar was not invited to deliver a speech.
This has turned into a political slugfest in Maharashtra with many leaders from the ruling Shiv Sena and NCP criticizing the state leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Shiv Sena leader and Marathi actress Deepali Sayed questioned the conduct of the state BJP president Chandrakant Patil over the incident. In her latest tweet she asked him why Ajit Pawar’s name was not included in the list of speakers.
चंद्रकांतदादा भाषणाच्या यादीतुन अजितदादांचे नाव गायब झाले कसे?स्थानिक प्रतिनीधींचे पासेस कुठे?तुम्ही स्टेजवर मग स्थानिक प्रतिनीधींना अशीवागणुक का? मोदींच्या बोलण्याने देशचालत नाहीआणि फडणवीसांनी मोठेपणाकरून ते मोठे होत नाहीत.PMO ने माफी मागा हिभाजपाची सभा नव्हे जनतेला उत्तर द्या!
— Deepali Sayed (@deepalisayed) June 16, 2022
In her tweet she also said, “Where are the passes of the local representatives? Modiji’s speech alone does not run the country and Fadnavis does not make it big by his magnanimity. The PMO must apologise.”
Besides Prime Minister Modi, only two persons spoke at the 90-minute programme, which was attended by about 50,000 people.
Devendra Fadnavis, the Leader of the Opposition, and Nitin More, the Chief Trustee of the Dehu Temple Trust, were each given three minutes to speak. Ajit Pawar, Chandrakant Patil and BJP Spiritual Cell head Tushar Bhosale were among the dignitaries, who shared the dais with PM Modi at the event.
Supriya Sule, NCP MP, described the incident as ‘an insult to the state’, noting that while Fadnavis was given time for the speech in his capacity as the leader of Opposition, Ajit Pawar, who attended the event as part of protocol, was not allowed to speak.
Deepali Sayed was earlier in the news for her tweets targeted at MNS supremo Raj Thackeray and his son Amit Thackeray over the loudspeaker row last month.
