Fadnavis rejects Pawar’s remarks on sending money to ruling party candidates

Pune: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday rejected Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s allegations that police vehicles were being used to ferry money to ruling party candidates ahead of the assembly elections. Fadnavis is in Pune to meet party workers ahead of the November 20 assembly elections. Earlier in the day, Pawar had claimed that police vehicles were being used to ferry money to ruling party candidates in Maharashtra ahead of the assembly elections. Addressing reporters in Baramati, Pawar said he wanted to speak more publicly on the issue but was refraining from doing so as it would hurt the officials who shared the information with him. Speaking to reporters here, Fadnavis said the NCP (SP) chief was confused as such things used to happen when opposition parties were in power. Fadnavis expressed confidence that rebel NCP candidates from Daund and Purandar seats will withdraw their nominations. The BJP leader said that he has urged senior leader Gopal Shetty to think about the party. Earlier this week, Shetty, a two-time Lok Sabha member from Mumbai North, had said that he would file his nomination papers from Borivali as his name was not in the fourth list of candidates announced by the BJP. Shetty had met Fadnavis after not getting a ticket from the Borivali seat. Talking about the meeting, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “He is our senior leader and I have urged him to think about the party. He has followed the party discipline. I am sure he will do the same now. His anger is understandable.” Shetty, who won the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019 by a margin of over four lakh votes, was not given a ticket in the 2024 general elections. BJP candidate and Union Minister Piyush Goyal won the seat. The BJP has fielded Sanjay Upadhyay from Borivali. Shetty has filed his nomination as an independent candidate.