Flanked by his ministers, senior social gathering leaders and legislators, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday visited the well-known Siddhivinayak temple in central Mumbai to hunt blessings of the deity forward of launching the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP’s) marketing campaign for the forthcoming Maharashtra meeting elections.
“We are going to the people seeking the mandate. Before that, we came to seek the blessings of Lord Ganesh,” Pawar mentioned after reaching the temple alongside along with his social gathering colleagues in a bus.
Brushing apart the debacle within the Lok Sabha elections, Pawar is gearing as much as retain his floor within the state meeting, the place his NCP has 40 MLAs. For this goal, he has employed Naresh Arora, co-founder of DesignBoxed, a political marketing campaign administration firm that dealt with the Congress’ marketing campaign within the Karnataka and Rajasthan meeting elections final yr.
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A yr in the past, Pawar led a revolt towards his uncle and NCP founder Sharad Pawar. He walked out with a majority of the social gathering’s MLAs, dealing a extreme blow to Sharad Pawar, and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP authorities. The Election Commission of India additionally handed the social gathering identify and election image to Ajit Pawar’s faction.
However, the outcomes of the current Lok Sabha elections have put a query mark on the way forward for his faction. Ajit Pawar’s NCP might win just one out of 4 seats it contested, whereas NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) gained eight constituencies. Ajit Pawar additionally misplaced the social gathering’s bastion of Baramati to his uncle.
Although most of Ajit Pawar’s MLAs come from the western and northern Maharashtra belt, the NCP drew a clean there. Following the Lok Sabha outcomes, ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began having second ideas about him. Functionaries of the Rashtriya Syayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological father or mother, blamed NCP for affecting the Hindu nationalist social gathering’s model worth. There has additionally been hypothesis that a number of of Ajit Pawar’s MLAs are sending feelers to return to the Sharad Pawar camp.
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In this background, Ajit Pawar had no choice however to struggle again. He went right into a huddle along with his colleagues, labored out a plan for bouncing again and employed Arora.
“The brief given is to refurbish Ajit Pawar’s image and work out a strategy to ensure that the party retains its ground,” mentioned a senior NCP chief. “We have 40 MLAs. Our aim is to reach 40-50 seats in the next assembly.”
On July 4, Ajit Pawar posted an emotional video message on his social media handles, claiming he was a sufferer of soiled politics and was being focused for arising with schemes for the individuals. A day later, he participated within the warkari sect’s wari (procession). After visiting Siddhivinayak temple on Tuesday, Ajit Pawar’s NCP will organise a grand rally at Baramati on July 14 as a present of energy.
Asked if this was all completed on the social gathering’s new political strategist’s recommendation, NCP spokesperson Suraj Chavan mentioned, “Arora’s services were hired to help with political messaging and social media handling. Nowadays, all parties hire consultants for election campaigns.”
NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Tuesday took potshots at Ajit Pawar, saying, “They have hired a consultant by spending ₹200 crore to build Ajit dada’s image ahead of the assembly elections. Visiting the temple must be his idea,” he mentioned.
In response, Chavan mentioned, “Ajit dada doesn’t need any consultant for image building. He himself is a brand. Rohit Pawar should tell people how much he spent on changing his childish image.”
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
