Tension in Maha Yuti as BJP leaders show black flags to Ajit Pawar
Maha Yuti' after a local BJP leader and some workers protested on Sunday and waved black flags during deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's campaign yatra in Pune.
The incident led to top NCP leaders asking the BJP leadership to intervene and ensure that such incidents do not happen in the future in the interest of the "unity" of the alliance.
Pawar was shown black flags by former BJP district council president Asha Buchke, who claimed that the NCP leader has been holding government meetings by sidelining BJP leaders, including chief minister Eknath Shinde. Buchke and her supporters raised black flags and shouted slogans against Pawar when he was in Narayangaon in Pune holding a Jansanman Yatra, an initiative to reach out to people before the assembly elections.
"Devendra Fadnavis should intervene immediately and clarify this issue," said NCP leader Amol Mitkari and asked Fadnavis to «clarify» whether Buchke's protest was sanctioned by the BJP leadership.
State NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said, «The Jansamvad Yatra is an NCP programme which is independent of the government. Fadnavis should give a strong warning (to their party workers) on this issue. There was no need for the protest… Even in my district BJP leaders hold programmes, but we don't complain. If such protests are held, then it is not in the interest of the unity of the alliance. BJP needs to take a stern view on this.»
The unease between NCP and its allies — BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) — has been on the rise after the debacle in the recently held
