Pune, Jan 2 (PTI) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday justified giving tickets to candidates with criminals backgrounds for civic polls claiming he himself faced allegations of orchestrating a Rs 70000 crore irrigation scam and asserted no one is a criminal till proven guilty.
On Thursday, Union minister and BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol had criticised Pawar's NCP for giving tickets to persons with criminal links.
Replying to Mohol, Pawar said everyone knows he never supports such elements.
The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has given tickets to Sonali Andekar, daughter-in-law of gang leader Suryakant alias Bandu Andekar, and his sister-in-law Laxmi Andekar through its ally RPI (Sachin Kharat faction ). All three are accused in the murder of Bandu Andekar's grandson Ayush Komkar and are currently in jail.
The NCP is in alliance with the RPI (Sachin Kharat) for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic polls to be held on January 15.
"I will come up with a list of candidates who have been given the tickets by NCP, and other alliance partners including RPI (Sachin Kharat faction)," Pawar said.
"Everybody knows that allegations of a Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam were levelled against me. Today, I am in power alongside those who made those allegations. Can a person be labelled guilty even before it is proved," he said.
In an apparent reference to gangster Nilesh Ghaywal, who fled the country amid a firing case against him, Pawar asked who helped the person to escape.
Addressing a press conference in Pimpri Chinchwad, Pawar alleged irregularities in the local civic body, which had been pushed into debt.
"This municipal corporation was once known as the richest in Asia. It even received awards as the best city of India when NCP was in power and achieved many such milestones, Yet, despite being so wealthy, it was never pushed into debt," he said.
"Over the past few years, deposits have been steadily declining. Deposits worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore have been depleted. Fine, that may be so, but at least show work that matches this expenditure," he said.
From 2017 to 2022, BJP was in power in PCMC. Since 2022, it is under a government-appointed administrator.
"If the NCP comes in power, a probe will be initiated into all these irregularities," the deputy CM said.