Maharashtra: Fadnavis defends Ajit Pawar over allocation of funds to MLAs

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said Finance Minister Ajit Pawar hasn’t given any preferential treatment to NCP MLAs backing him, while allocating funds to legislators for development work in the supplementary demands tabled in the state legislature.

BJP and Shiv Sena MLAs have also been given funds. It is not correct to say that only they (Ajit Pawar supporters) have been given the funds, Fadnavis told reporters.

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Pawar on Monday presented supplementary demands of Rs 41,243 crore for financial year 2023-24. Supplementary demands are additional funds sought by the government over the budget demands.

Fadnavis’ clarification came after media reports that Pawar had allocated Rs 1,500 crore in the supplementary demands for legislators. The report claimed that NCP MLAs who supported Pawar when he rebelled against Sharad Pawar to take oath as Deputy CM on July 2 had got at least Rs 25 crore each towards development work in their constituencies, with an NCP woman MLA getting Rs 40 crore.

However, Shiv Sena MLA Bharat Gogawale said the Eknath Shinde-led legislators have no issue with the quantum of fund allocation as they have not been denied their share.

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Ajit Pawar along with a group of NCP MLAs revolted against the party high command to join the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government earlier this month. He was sworn in as the deputy chief minister and was also allotted the key portfolio of finance in the state cabinet.

Interestingly, when Shiv Sena legislators led by Eknath Shinde raised the banner of revolt against Uddhav Thackeray last year, one of their grudges was that Ajit Pawar, who was the deputy chief minister with finance portfolio in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, had “allocated more funds to his NCP legislators” and denied them their rightful share.

(With agency inputs)