Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said the Pune Police and civic authorities were free to take action against “unauthorised” hoardings that had come up in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad ahead of his birthday.
Scores of “birthday greeting” hoardings from party supporters had mushroomed throughout Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, wishing Mr. Pawar and the Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, who share a birthday on July 22, despite both leaders urging their supporters not to do so
“Did Iask party workers or anybody else to put up those hoardings? I am a man who always abides by the rules. If these hoardings are illegal, then concerned officials from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation [PCMC], which is ruled by the BJP, should initiate action immediately,” said Mr. Pawar, who is also the Guardian Minister of Pune district.
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The hoardings refer to Mr. Fadnavis as the “architect of new Pune” and the “development man”. They have been put up by BJP supporters and party workers, while Mr. Pawar’s followers have propped billboards calling him an “administrator par excellence”.
With the civic body polls due in February next year, all major parties in the State have geared up for what is expected to be a fierce fight, especially in the crucial Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations.
The contest has already heated up with Maharashtra Congress chiefNana Patole’s repeated declarations that his party, despite being in an alliance with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the State government, would go it alone.
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Recently, Sena MP Sanjay Raut, too, had said the Sena would win the mayoral post in the PCMC (which is considered Mr. Pawar’s bastion)by winning 50 seats in the upcoming election.
Reacting to these statements, Mr. Pawar said: “With a few months left for the civic polls, leaders of all parties — the Sena, the BJP or the Congress – will be using all the gimmicks in their bag to galvanisetheir party workers… Every top leader will make such statementsto enthuse their workers. What a leader says to his party workers from their party’s podium is their right.”