Ajit Pawar joins Maharashtra govt: AAP calls Modi 'biggest patron of corruption'

Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (July 2), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called him the “biggest patron of corruption”.

The comments came after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, along with eight others from the NCP, joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government.

While Pawar was sworn in as the deputy chief minister by Governor Ramesh Bais at a ceremony held in the Raj Bhawan in Mumbai, the other NCP leaders took oath as ministers. Those who were sworn in as ministers are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.

Also read: Major jolt to NCP as Ajit Pawar rebels, sworn in as Deputy CM of Maharashtra

Reacting to the development, AAP national spokesperson Sanjay Singh hit out at the prime minister on Twitter. “Narendra Modi is the biggest patron of corruption in the country,” the Rajya Sabha MP said in a tweet in Hindi.

Two days after the prime minister gave a guarantee of action against corruption, Pawar was appointed as the deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena–BJP coalition government in Maharashtra and Bhujbal also inducted into the cabinet, Singh said. “Today all TV channels will condemn Modiji,” he claimed.

(With agency inputs)