Eyebrows have been raised over NCP president and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s failure to post a picture on X of his meeting with his arch political rival and mentor Sharad Pawar. Accompanied by wife Sunetra Pawar, Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel, state NCP president Sunil Tatkare, Ajit Pawar personally called on Pawar at his Delhi residence on Dec 12 to greet him on his 84th birthday.
Ajit Pawar had parted ways with the senior Pawar last year. Significantly, Pawar had to face a humiliating defeat in the assembly election. After a resounding victory in the polls, Ajit Pawar and senior NCP leaders were in Delhi on a thanksgiving tour of the BJP leadership. They called on Vice-President Jagtap Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda. Ajit Pawar posted pictures of his meetings with senior BJP leaders on X. Surprisingly, he appeared to have forgotten to post his pictures with Pawar, although he did greet the NCP (SP) chief on X. Ajit Pawar has a high-level team of experts handling his social media account and it is unlikely that he forgot to post his picture with Pawar on the platform.
Leave aside X, even in the electronic media, there was no coverage of his meeting with Pawar, while the NCP (SP) chief’s event for the rest of the day were adequately covered by print and electronic media. In one of the pictures on social media, Pawar was seen cutting a birthday cake with a huge knife.
Ajit Pawar has been putting up pictures of insignificant events on X. Under such circumstances, it appears that for obvious political reasons, he must have dropped the idea of posting a picture with Pawar.
From temple run in Mum to thanksgiving tour in Delhi
After a temple run in Mumbai, CM Devendra Fadnavis had a whistlestop tour in Delhi. After he was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party in the presence of finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman and former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, Fadnavis embarked on a religious mission. He first visited the historic Siddhivinayak temple, followed by Mahalaxmi temple, Mumbadevi temple, and then most of the temples in the city.
After that, Fadnavis moved his march to the national capital. All long, Fadnavis had maintained that his Delhi visit was apolitical and that it was a thanksgiving tour. Fadnavis said most of the central ministers, led by PM Narendra Modi, had actively campaigned in the state, following which Mahayuti was able to win 237 out of the 288 assembly seats. It created history since it was for the first time that Mahayuti secured those many seats in the House. Fadnavis himself set a record when BJP secured 137 seats.
On his visit to Delhi, Fadnavis first called on President Droupadi Murmu, followed by VP Jagdeep Dhankhar. Then, he called on Modi, home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh and Nadda. Fadnavis presented them an idol of either Vitthal-Rukmini or Lord Ganesha, along with a shawl and coconut—a Maharashtra tradition.
