After two days of constant negotiations and requests by ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, including deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, as well as requests from ally NCP-SP leadership, the Congress on Thursday withdrew its candidate from the Baramati bypoll fray, minutes before the deadline for withdrawal of nomination ended.
At a press conference held at 2 pm in Mumbai, Congress president in Maharashtra Harshavardhan Patil announced that its candidate Akash More will withdraw from the Baramati bypoll fray.
Sapkal, however, added that irrespective of the outcome of the current bypoll, which was necessitated due to the death of Ajit Pawar in an air crash, the Congress will have its MLA from Baramati in 2029.
In Baramati, Akash More said that, as per the directives of the party leadership, he would withdraw his nomination papers before 3 pm.
Sapkal stated that the party was withdrawing its candidate as a mark of respect to the late Ajit Pawar, who had a long association with the Congress, and in deference to the request made by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.
“For the past two days, senior leaders of NCP were in communication with our senior leadership and me. Deputy CM Sunetra Pawar too had a conversation with me, and today she spoke to our party president, Mallikarjun Kharge ji. Senior NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal also requested that this election be made unopposed. A delegation of NCP with minister Makarand Patil came to the Congress office to interact with us,” Sapkal told reporters.
Sapkal said that Rohit Pawar from the NCP(SP) came to meet me personally, while senior leaders Sharad Pawar, and Supriya Sule too expressed their wish that Congress withdraw from the fight.
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“While we maintained our stand of opposing the BJP and its ally at any cost and the need to investigate the case of the death of Ajit Pawar, we acknowledge that Ajit Pawar was a Congress leader as well and has spent several years in alliance with our party,” the Congress state chief said.
‘Our opposition to BJP remains’
The MPCC chief said even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had called him up in the morning and urged the party to withdraw the candidate. ”However, I would like to state that there is no connection between his request and our withdrawal of candidate from the fray. Our opposition to a party like BJP remains,” he said.
Sapkal said a delegation of NCP, which included senior leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal, had met him this morning and made the same request.
Besides, he said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar had spoken to party high command about withdrawing the candidate. ”Baramati MP Supriya Sule had also called up this morning and urged us to withdraw the party candidate,” he said.
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”Not just in Maharashtra, Baramati bypoll is being discussed across the country. We had fielded our candidate to oppose the ideology of a party like the BJP. We had taken a stand that if our alliance partners are not fighting the election, then we will field our candidate to oppose the BJP and its ideology,” Sapkal said.
Sapkal said when the party decided to field candidates, they had six aspirants for the contest. ”We picked Akash More…We had made all preparations to contest the election,” he said.
He added that the NCP delegation has expressed its gratitude to the Karnataka Congress government for filing a zero FIR in the case and appreciated the stand taken by the party in seeking an investigation into the death of Ajit Pawar.
“While we maintain our anti-BJP stand, we decided to acknowledge the political culture of cooperation and conversation in Maharashtra. While the BJP is trying to destroy it, it is our responsibility to uphold it. Therefore, after discussing with the state party leadership, we have decided to withdraw from the race,” he said.
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He was also asked about the leaders of both NCPs coming together to convince the Congress despite no merger. Sapkal said, “While he does not know about the merger of the two NCPs, it was clear that both parties were together to ensure that this election becomes unopposed,” he said.
‘NCP not immature to comment on Parth remarks’
When asked about NCP Rajya Sabha MP Parth Pawar’s comments on the Congress’ downfall in Maharashtra, Sapkal said that his party was not immature to comment on such childish and immature statements. “Bade bade desho mein chhoti chhoti baatein hoti hai,” he said, quoting a popular Shah Rukh Khan dialogue. “Congress is magnanimous enough to let go of immature statements,” he said.
