Baramati:
The Election Commission has sought a report from the Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer on reports that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, a top Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, had threatened villagers that they would lose their water supply if they didn't vote for his cousin, Supriya Sule.
The NCP claims that Mr Pawar's threat,
captured allegedly in a video, was doctored. "The alleged video of Ajit Pawar is doctored. It is a publicity stunt by the Aam Aadmi Party,'' maintained NCP spokesman Nawab Malik.
The video, shot on a cellphone, shows Mr Pawar urging a village in Baramati in Maharashtra to vote for his cousin, whose father, Sharad Pawar, is the chief of the NCP. (
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The opposition claims that in the blurry video, Mr Pawar, 65, can be heard threatening, "We could see on the voting machine which village has voted for whom...I was the one who bought water to the village after lot of efforts and if you don't vote for us I will stop water supply to the village."
Baramati, which hosts thousands of sugar-cane farmers, grapples repeatedly with drought. Mr Pawar's NCP has co-governed the state with the Congress since 2009. Assembly elections will be held in October later this year, and the BJP alliance with the Shiv Sena is expected to win the state. (
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At the same meeting, a little later, a young man, who was later identified as Sandeep Thombare, an army jawan posted in Nagaland, asked why the supply of water to the village remains erratic.
When Mr Thombare refused to be side-stepped and persisted with his questioning, Mr Pawar allegedly asked his supporters to remove the man from the meeting.
Candidates from the Shiv Sena and the AAP later complained about this incident to local election officials who say they are investigating the matter.