Parties using money, muscle and fear to poach leaders, says Ajit Pawar

Pune: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday launched a scathing attack on the state of contemporary politics, alleging that political parties have abandoned ideology in favour of "money and muscle power" to expand their ranks.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, Pawar claimed that a systematic erosion of commitment is taking place, with leaders being poached through inducements or coerced by the threat of investigations. "Leaders are going anywhere and doing whatever they feel," Pawar said. Some are being poached through inducements, while others are pressured by highlighting pending inquiries against them and assuring that probe agencies would be managed after a switch, he said.

The comments come as Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) prepares for the upcoming municipal corporation elections on January 15. Despite being partners in the ruling Mahayuti coalition at the state level, the NCP and BJP are contesting the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad civic polls independently.

Pawar defended his aggressive stance against his state-level allies, noting that local body elections are fought on civic issues rather than national narratives. He also downplayed the alliance between his faction and the NCP (SP) in Pune, stating it was a decision driven by local workers rather than a premeditated merger strategy. "Right now, we are focused only on winning maximum seats," he said.

Pawar specifically targeted the local BJP leadership in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, accusing them of a "lack of vision" that has pushed the civic bodies into crisis. He contrasted the BJP’s tenure (2017-2022) with the NCP's previous administration (1992-2017), claiming the latter period saw minute planning and financial stability.

"From 1992 till 2017, Pimpri-Chinchwad was developed with minute planning. The corporation became the richest civic body in Asia due to sound financial management and able leadership. There was no need to take loans or issue bonds during our tenure," Pawar claimed. Conversely, he alleged that despite spending approximately Rs 60,000 crore in the last eight to nine years under BJP stewardship, development is not visible on the ground.

He highlighted specific failures in water supply and waste management, alleging the existence of a "tanker mafia" and ghost employees in sanitation departments where over 50 per cent of the listed workforce is missing from duty.

Pawar also lamented a new trend where political parties rely solely on popularity surveys to pick candidates, regardless of their party affiliation. "Surveys are being used to check who is the most popular candidate in a particular area. If that person belongs to the opposite party, efforts are made to poach him or her," he observed, contrasting this with the era of former CM Yashwantrao Chavan, who he said maintained respect for opposition leaders and avoided vendetta politics.

(Inputs from PTI)