Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)chief Sharad Pawar has hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah after the latter had described him as the ‘kingpin of corruption’.
“A few days ago, home minister Amit Shah attacked me and called me a few things. He called me the ‘commander of all the corrupt people in the country.’ Strangely, the home minister is a person who misused the law of Gujarat and for this, the Supreme Court banished him from Gujarat,” Pawar said.
“The one who was banished is the home minister today. So, we should think about where we are headed. The way the people in whose hands this country is, are taking the wrong path, we should think about it; or else, I am 100% confident that they will take the country on the wrong path. We must pay attention to this,” he has reportedly said.
In 2010, the BJP member, was expelled from his home state for two years in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. He was acquitted in 2014.
On July 21, at a BJP conclave in Maharashtra's Pune, Shah accused the ex-Union minister of ‘institutionalising corruption.’
“They (opposition) are speaking about corruption. The biggest kingpin of corruption in Indian politics is Sharad Pawar and I have no confusion in that. What will they accuse us of now? If somebody has done the job of institutionalising corruption, Sharad Pawar, it is you,” Shah had said.
The Assembly elections in Maharashtra are slated to be held in October this year.
The contest is between Mahayuti, the ruling alliance, comprising of the BJP, chief minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, and NCP led by deputy CM Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Sharad and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition which has the Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and NCP Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).
