Mr Atram is the Maharashtra food and drug administration minister
Maharashtra Minister of Food and Drug Administration and senior NCP leader Dharmaraobaba Atram has urged the voters of Aheri Assembly constituency to throw his daughter Bhagyashree and son-in-law Rituraj Halgekar in the Pranhita river for ‘treachery' after reports surfaced that she could join the rival NCP faction led by Sharad Pawar.
Mr Atram made the controversial remarks in the presence of the party's national president and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was in Aheri during his 'Jansanman Yatra' to promote the Mahayuti government's Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana and other welfare and development schemes.
The trigger for Mr Atram to target his daughter was her reported move to switch sides and join NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) to fight against him.
“People leave the party but there is no need to pay attention to them. Some people in our family want to join another party by using my political clout. For 40 years, people have engineered defections in state politics. Now the Sharad Pawar group leaders want to divide my house and field my daughter against me. Don't trust my son-in-law and daughter,” said Mr Atram, amid loud applause and slogans.
“These people have ditched me. Everyone should throw them in the nearby Pranhita River. They are taking my daughter to their side and pitting her against her father. A girl who could not become a daughter of her father, how can she become yours? You have to think about it. What justice will she give to you? Don't trust them. In politics, I will not see this as my daughter, brother or sister,” said Mr Atram, who is expected to be the party's nominee from the Aheri Assembly segment in the coming election.
He added that if one daughter deserts him, another daughter is still with him so is his son, his brother and his cousin's son.
“The whole family has gathered behind me,” he said, sending a clear message to his daughter that he is not worried about his poll prospects.
NCP national president Ajit Pawar, who deserted his uncle and joined hands with the BJP and Shiv Sena last year, took note of Dharmaraobaba Atram's warning to his daughter and made an appeal to her.
“The whole family is with Dharmaraobaba, who has made one of them the president of Zilla Parishad. But now they (Bhagyashree) are preparing to contest Dharmaraobaba himself. Wrestling is very popular with us. Always the master does not teach all tricks to the one who learns from him. He reserves one but teaches others. I want to tell them (Bhagyashree) not to make the mistake. Stay with your father,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)