Oppn had chance to get FIR filed in Baramati plane crash and ‘unmask’ BJP: Sanjay Raut
Amid Baramati by-election developments, Raut says Congress candidate's withdrawal was a missed chance to force FIR in plane crash
Mumbai, Apr 9 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday said the opposition had an opportunity to get its demand of registration of an FIR in Ajit Pawar plane crash fulfilled in exchange of withdrawal of the Congress candidate from the Baramati assembly bypoll.
He said there was a chance before the opposition parties to "unmask" the BJP.
Raut was responding to reporters' query about the Congress' withdrawal of its candidate, Akash More, from the bypoll to the Baramati assembly segment, from where Deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar is in the fray.
More took back his nomination as per the party leadership's decision on the last day of withdrawal of nominations.
The bypoll is necessitated due to the death of the then deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who represented the Baramati seat eight times. The by-election will be held on April 23 and there are a total of 23 candidates in the fray after the deadline for nomination withdrawal ended.
Opposition parties in the state have been demanding filing of an FIR in the Baramati plane crash that killed Ajit Pawar along with four others on January 28.
An FIR is needed to probe the air crash of Ajit Pawar and the government appears unconcerned to even book the aviation company whose aircraft was crashed.
Earlier in the day, NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar met state Congress Harshwardhan Sapkal, urging him to ask his party candidate Akash More to withdraw from the race.
"Why is he (Rohit Pawar) letting go of his basic demand of getting an FIR registered. This is the right opportunity to get the FIR registered and unmask the BJP," Raut said.
The Congress had earlier said that it would withdraw from the Baramati bypoll race if an FIR is registered in the plane crash.
Raut said the demand for an FIR in the death of Ajit Pawar should have been made by Sunetra Pawar and their sons Parth and Jai.
On Trinamool Congress delegation's alleged spat with the chief election commissioner on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha member said the behavior of the poll body is an assault on democracy.
The TMC's delegation meeting with the Election Commission to raise issues related to SIR in West Bengal saw acrimonious exchanges, with the party leaders claiming the CEC asked them to "get lost" and the poll panel accusing them of "shouting".
"This means the EC has merged with the BJP. The poll panel should unfurl BJP's flag over its office and state that it is the sister organisation of the ruling party," Raut said. PTI