Mumbai: Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde reportedly had an intense, unscheduled discussion with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at Mantralaya on Monday.
The meeting assumes significance, coming in the wake of the controversy over the murder of a sarpanch in Beed and the subsequent arrest of seven people considered close to the minister. The meeting between Ajit Pawar and Munde went on for more than an hour, their first meeting after the conclusion of the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur on December 21.
NCP Sources On The Meeting
Nationalist Congress Party sources said Munde had barged in to meet his party boss without an appointment. Those present in Pawar’s chamber told the FPJ that a heated debate had ensued between the two on the deadlock over the raging controversy and the consistent demands for Munde’s scalp by all party leaders and prominent leaders from the Maratha community.
According to sources, Pawar is maintaining a discreet silence over the issue ever since he met the family of the slain sarpanch, Santosh Deshmukh, an active member of the BJP, at Massajog village in the Kaij tehsil of Beed district on December 21. Sources said Pawar’s voice could be heard outside his antechamber but it was difficult to ascertain what he was saying, as there were a number of visitors in the main chamber. The minister reached Pawar’s chamber around 3.45 pm and waited for over 10 minutes before stepping into the antechamber. Soon thereafter, Tourism Minister Shambhuraj Desai from the Shiv Sena went inside and the trio was inside for more than 15 minutes.
In this period, a senior bureaucrat who had some urgent work to discuss with the Dy CM also went inside. Pawar did not appear keen on having a one-to-one discussion with Munde or he would have asked Desai and the senior bureaucrat to wait awhile, said an NCP leader waiting for his turn to meet the Dy CM. It was only after Desai and the bureaucrat exited that the discussion between Pawar and Munde took place for more than an hour.
The discussion was apparently over the political fallout of the Beed incident and the demand for Munde’s resignation not just by the opposition parties but by MLAs from the Mahayuti, such as Suresh Dhas of the BJP and Prakash Solanke from the NCP. Pawar’s silence on the issue is telling, say sources from the NCP.
According to them, the Mahayuti is waiting for Munde to quit on his own, accepting the present turmoil in Beed and allegations of his highhanded behavior in letting his supporters rule the roost. When Munde came out of the antechamber, a posse of mediapersons was waiting for him. Instead of replying to their queries, he said, “I went to wish him a happy new year. I updated the Dy CM about the work since taking charge of the Department of Food and Civil Supplies.”