Maharashtra Assembly Polls 2024 | Big leaders do not hold rally in tehsil places: Ajit Pawar on PM not campaigning in Baramati

The prime minister would be holding campaign rallies for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections starting Friday.

Pune: NCP chief and Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said leaders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stature generally do not hold campaign rallies in smaller places, and hence Modi would not be coming to Baramati.

Pawar is contesting the November 20 state assembly elections from his Baramati seat.

Asked by reporters why he did not invite Modi to hold a public meeting in his support, Ajit said when leaders like Modi campaign, their rallies are organised at district headquarters, and not at tehsil places.

"People from tehsils go and attend the rally. A rally in Pune will be for the entire district which includes Baramati," he said.

Asked why Modi had held a rally in Baramati in 2019, he said then the objective was to defeat "a candidate named Ajit Pawar".

Pawar, as part of the NCP led by his uncle Sharad Pawar then, was in the opposition camp in 2019.

"This time, Modi does not have to defeat that person. He wants to make him win and that is why they are not holding a rally," said Ajit in a lighter vein.

On Thursday, Ajit Pawar had said he did not request Modi to come to Baramati constituency because the fight there is within the family. Pawar is contesting against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, the candidate of the rival Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar. The NCP led by Ajit Pawar is now part of the ruling coalition along with the BJP and Shiv Sena.

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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