Ajit Pawar Pays Respect To Late Laxman Jagtap
Pune, 5th January 2023: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, NCP leader Ajit Pawar said, “When Laxman was a member of the Legislative Council representing Pune Local Self-Government, I told him, ‘You fill out the form and then switch off your mobile. Don’t turn on your phone until the deadline for the form is due. The election was held and Laxman won the one-sided election, and he became an legislator for the first time.”
Pawar consoled the family when he visited Jagtap’s house in Pimple Gurav. Pawar stated that Laxman Jagtap was suffering from a serious illness while reminiscing about him. Everyone tried to overcome it. They made an effort. However, neither time nor destiny can be delayed. Everyone has to face such situations. In 1991, Pimpri-Chinchwad and I had a relationship. I attempted to collaborate with numerous young workers at the time. I was a very young MP. My colleagues and I have continuously worked on this. There were many colleagues in it. One of them was Laxman,” he said.
Laxman Jagtap was given multiple responsibilities within the municipal corporation, including the mayor, city president of NCP, standing committee chairman, and corporator. Jagtap did a great job of taking on that responsibility. Later, some political equations changed. He was forced to make a different choice because of political events in 2014. However, before that, there was a similar incident when he was elected as MLC of the Legislative Council from Pune Local Self-Government Constituency.
“I told Laxman, ‘Fill out the form and then turn off your mobile phone. I will not call you until the deadline for the form is due.’ He followed through. There was a lot of pressure from the seniors. Chandukaka Jagtap got the Congress ticket. However, there were more supporters of our viewpoint in the constituency. I wanted to elect a man of our opinion. I was sure that if there was an election, I could elect Laxman. The election was held later. A very one-sided election was won by Laxman,” Pawar said.
After that, the Chinchwad Vidhan Sabha constituency went to Congress. Again, Laxman had to stand as an independent for the assembly.
However, he was successful in winning the second election as an independent due to his work among the people, his large pool of workers, and his organisation skills. However, he remained with Pawar Saheb and our people until the very end, even after he was elected as an independent. During the parliamentary elections in 2014, a different circumstance arose. But, unfortunately, it was not successful. As a result of this, he was tired. A lot of efforts were made to get him elected. However, there was no success. Later he decided to join the BJP. A colleague who was once very close to me has died. “I pray that God gives strength to his family and colleagues to bear this suffering,” Ajit Pawar stated.
