Mahayuti infighting continues: Ajit Pawar’s pics missing from BJP’s Ladki Bahin posters

Mumbai: Infighting within the ruling Mahayuti government continued a day after union home minister Amit Shah directed leaders of the three allies to avoid public confrontations and put on a united front ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena’s Baramati district president Surendra Jevre covered a life-size poster of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar with a black cloth as a mark of protest after the Nationalist Congress Party chief did not visit his Ganesh mandal despite being invited.
In Thane, the Bharatiya Janata Party chose not to use Pawar’s pictures in hoardings put up to promote the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. The populist scheme, announced in the state budget earlier this year, provides a monthly allowance of ₹1,500 to underprivileged women across the state. The hoardings in Thane had pictures of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister Eknath Shinde, and prime minister Narendra Modi, among others, but not Pawar.
Pawar’s pictures were also missing from an exhibition at the chief minister’s official residence promoting various schemes undertaken by the Mahayuti government.
Reacting to the Baramati incident, Pawar said it would not be possible for him to visit every Ganesh mandal he was invited to. “Insistence of this level is not right. We all are part of the Mahayuti coalition and I cannot take cognisance of people coming from low ranks,” he said.
The Shiv Sena, meanwhile, claimed that Jevre doesn’t belong to the party and assured they will take action if he is related to it. Party leader and minister Shambhuraj Desai said, “He is not our party worker and might be from Shiv Sena (UBT). It is wrong to cover the poster of a senior leader, and the party will take action against him if he is found to be connected with Shiv Sena in any way.”
Meanwhile, NCP (Sharad Pawar) MLA Rohit Pawar claimed on Tuesday that the BJP’s internal survey suggests the party will win 62-67 seats, while 17-22 seats will go to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and 7-11 seats to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the upcoming assembly elections. The survey also indicates that the results of the Lok Sabha elections are going to be repeated in the assembly polls, he said. Pawar also claimed the BJP leadership is worried and has offered Ajit Pawar to field their big leaders and independent candidates against the NCP (SP) candidates in return for six to seven more seats.
In the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the three Mahayuti allies managed to win only 17 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra.