Pune: Tension between BJP leader Harshvardhan Patil and Ajit Pawar's NCP continues to escalate in Indapur as the assembly election nears. In a fresh episode, Patil expressed his disappointment after his name was missing from a development project event to be inaugurated by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Indapur on Friday. “Except mine, names of almost all the office-bearers of a party (NCP) are on the cornerstone of the development project.
There is no invitation to me. I am not bothered as the people know my contribution to the tehsil,” Patil said. Patil and Ajit Pawar are old rivals.
In 2019, Ajit Pawar had ensured Patil’s defeat from the Indapur assembly seat. After the changed political equations following Pawar's entry into the Mahayuti alliance, his party had requested other BJP leaders to convince Patil to help Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra in her LS election campaign. “During the LS poll, they wanted help from my supporters.
Matters have changed in three months and they are not respecting my supporters any more," Patil, a former cabinet minister, said. In a message to NCP, Patil organised his birthday celebration on Wednesday. "My supporters want me to win the seat and I respect their feelings.
I am waiting for the seat-sharing talks," Patil said. Sitting NCP MLA Datta Bharne said that no decision on a candidate for the seat has been taken so far. On Patil’s claim, Bharne said, “His supporters feel that he should get the ticket and my supporters want me n.