Ahead of the upcoming Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) elections, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Supriya Sule on Monday said that there has never been any issue within their family.
She questioned the Mahayuti government about the steps taken to curb rising crime in Pune. "I have written to the Chief Minister many times on rising crimes in Pune, so I want to ask him what he has done about it? There were never issues between the family. We are all here to serve the public," Sule told reporters here.
Her remarks follow NCP (SP) joining hands with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP for the Pune municipal elections.
She said that her party has released a progressive manifesto. "We have launched a progressive manifesto. I am confident that people from Pune and PCMC (Pimpri Chinchawad Municipal Corporation) will stand with us," Sule said.
On Saturday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would have given a ticket to Dawood Ibrahim's relatives if they had met with him.
While addressing a public rally, he said that the Mahayuti can't win elections without hooliganism. Raut argued that Pune, once known for its beauty, is known as a "city of goons".
"Pune was once a very beautiful city, but today it is known as a city of goons. Whether it is the BJP or Ajit Pawar's party, there is hardly any gang whose relatives have not been given election tickets by these parties. I once said that if these people had met Dawood, they would have given tickets to his brother or relatives, including Chhota Shakeel and Chhota Rajan. These people cannot win elections without hooliganism," Raut said.
Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has pitched for the Muslim community to "develop their own political agency" and vote for a party which will develop organic muslim leadership, instead of parties that have actively opposed a leader from the minority community all the time.
Criticising the Mahayuti and MVA alike, Owaisi said parties like Congress, both factions of NCP, and Shiv Sena have always opposed a Muslim leader.
"It is good, Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (UBT) or BJP are fighting (the polls) together. But when the issue of Ward came up, then everyone said, No no they can't win, if they win then we will have more headaches. When state elections will come then this will come forward. I want to tell you all that Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (UBT) or BJP, none of them likes the rising of a leader from Muslim minority community. They don't like it if a leader is born," the AIMIM chief said in a public rally in Jalna on Sunday.
The State Election Commission in Maharashtra has announced elections to 29 municipal corporations across the state, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), PMC and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).
Polling will be held on January 15, with counting scheduled for January 16.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
