BJP may want Ajit Pawar to contest elections separately and divide MVA votes: Rohit Pawar

Mumbai: NCP(SP) leader Rohit Pawar on Thursday claimed that the BJP may want the rival NCP led by his uncle and Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to contest the coming assembly elections separately in order to cut into the Opposition's votes.

The saffron party was trying to reduce Ajit Pawar's political importance, he told reporters here.

The BJP might offer Ajit Pawar only 20 of the 288 assembly seats, and the latter could then walk out of the ruling alliance, said Rohit, grand-nephew of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar.

"To keep Ajit Pawar out may be a strategy of the BJP, or both BJP and Ajit Pawar group. He may contest separately to divide the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi's votes, especially those of NCP (SP). But the people and the MLAs in Ajit Pawar's party are not fools," he said.

The people have shown in the Lok Sabha elections that they would not entertain "vote cutters", said Rohit, MLA from Karjat Jamkhed.

Asked about reports that some MLAs from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP met NCP (SP) Maharashtra chief Jayant Patil on the state legislature premises here, Rohit repeated his claim that 18 to 19 MLAs of the Ajit faction were in touch with Jayant Patil and Sharad Pawar.

"The two leaders will decide who should be inducted back in the party," he added.

About some BJP workers reportedly criticising the saffron party's decision to include Ajit Pawar in the ruling coalition during a review meeting in Shirur, Rohit said earlier only BJP leaders targeted the NCP chief. Now even party workers were speaking out against Ajit Pawar, he said.