BJP Leader Writes to Fadnavis, Seeks Action on ‘criminal elements’ in NCP
Mumbai: Former Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Harshwardhan Patil has written a letter to deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnvis alleging that he has been getting threats from an alliance partner. Though Patil did not name the alliance partner, it was clear that he was referring to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. He said that some criminal elements from the alliance partner are threatening him and urged Fadnavis, who is also the home minister of Maharashtra, to take action against them.
“The Maha Yuti (alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP) government is doing a good work in the state under your guidance. But when I am carrying out political and social work in my Indapur taluka under your leadership, some local members of an alliance partner are making derogatory and abusive comments against me. They have even threatened that I will not be allowed to move around in Indapur. I am worried about my safety because of their threats. This is a serious matter. I urge you to look into it. Such criminal elements must be dealt with immediately. I request you to order immediate action and help me,” Mr. Patil said in his letter.
Mr. Patil represented Indapur assembly constituency, which is a part of the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, as MLA for 19 years from 1995 to 2014. He was elected as an independent candidate three times and once as the Congress candidate. All these years, he also served as a minister — first in the Shiv Sena-BJP government from 1995 to 1999 and three terms of Congress-NCP government from 199 to 2014. However, he lost to NCP’s Dattatray Bharne in 2014 and 2019.
“It is the election season now. I have been the MLA of Indapur. But today, some office bearers of an alliance partner are giving open threats in their speeches. I do not think that it will stop here. Therefore I wrote a letter to Mr. Fadnavis in order to avoidant untoward incident in the future,” Mr. Patil said.
Mr. Bharne won the election by more than 14,000 votes in 2014. Before the 2019 assembly election, Mr. Patil joined the BJP and contested the election on its ticket. This time also he lost but the margin of Mr. Bharne’s victory was mere 3,000 votes. After Ajit Pawar’s party joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, it has created a big question mark on Mr. Patil’s political future.