Ajit Pawar Welcomes Mumbai Congress General Secretary- Javed Shroff to NCP

Mumbai Congress General Secretary Javed Shroff has switched sides to join the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party. This twist came ahead of the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Javed Shroff made the move official on Tuesday in the presence of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare.

In a statement posted on X, Ajit Pawar welcomed Shroff to the party, saying, “Mumbai Congress Secretary Alhaz Javed R Shroff has joined the Nationalist Congress Party. I wholeheartedly welcome him. I am confident that, following the party’s ideology, he will significantly contribute to public service.”

NCP of Ajit Pawar also faced a setback in Pune where over 600 party workers and officials from the city unit resigned. This mass resignation came after the decision of the Governor where he said not to grant Pune City President Deepak Mankar an MLC post. The party had instead chosen to re-nominate individuals with family ties to politics for the three MLC seats from the Governor’s quota.

ANI said Vice President of NCP Pune City said that Datta Sagare, “600 party workers resigned from their posts today in protest after Pune City President Deepak Mankar was denied the MLC post from the governor’s quota by our top leadership.”

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Supporters of Mankar gathered at the NCP office in the Narayanpeth area in the evening. All the workers and supporters where organized a meeting and announced their mass resignations. Among those stepping down were city vice presidents, assembly constituency chiefs, various cell heads, and other party workers.

A memorandum issued by the group expressed their disappointment stating, “We believed Ajit Pawar would provide justice to party workers. However by denying Deepak Mankar the MLC seat our trust has been broken.”