"No fault of Central, State govt, question about local leadership": Ajit Pawar on contesting against Mahayuti in PMC polls

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], January 5 : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar justified his decision to fight the Mahayuti alliance in the Pune Municipal Corporation elections, flagging several issues in local leadership that are affecting Pune's development.
Ajit Pawar, who is part of the Mahayuti alliance but decided to fight the PMC elections with his Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP), said that the Central and state governments are providing "ample" funds, but the implementation has not been realised at the local level.
"Both the Central and State governments are providing ample funds for development works across every corner of Maharashtra. No development scheme is being kept pending by either the Centre or the State. But the question is, what has been the condition of the municipal corporations that have remained under the same leadership for the past several years?" Ajit Pawar said.
"There is no fault of the Central or State governments in this. The real question is about the performance of the local leadership," he added.
Ajit Pawar further stated that this is not the first time local elections have been fought separately.
"A sensible voter may naturally wonder: if we are together at the Centre and in the state, then what exactly has gone wrong here? I want to make it absolutely clear to everyone that a similar situation existed a few years ago as well. At that time, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power in the state, and the UPA government was ruling at the Centre. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister, and leaders like Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, and Vilasrao Deshmukh were heading the state at different times. Even then, local body elections were fought separately on local issues, often against each other," he said.
Ajit Pawar further flagged the issues of traffic, water management, and the lack of civic amenities in Pune, and blamed the Municipal Corporation for not addressing them.
"Look at old Pune, especially this central area where we are present today. Earlier, this place had everything. It was known as the cultural capital. Big buildings came up, but no one solved the water problem. The number of water tankers has increased. Who is responsible for all this? You tell me. If the Pune Municipal Corporation is not responsible, then who is? Pune's population is continuously increasing. Where there were once six Assembly constituencies, there are now eight, and by 2019, there could even be ten. Yet, there is a severe shortage of basic civic amenities," he said.
Recently, Ajit Pawar and BJP's Ravindra Chavan got into an intensifying political face-off ahead of the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections, levelling allegations and counter-allegations against each other, with the latter warning that "If I start speaking, he (Ajit Pawar) will get in trouble.
Polling for the local body elections in Maharashtra will be held on January 15.