BJP invites ruling allies for visit to memorial at RSS headquarters; Ajit Pawar likely to skip

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday invited its ruling alliance partners Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP to accompany its legislators to the Dr Hedgewar Smarak Samiti in Reshimbagh in Nagpur to pay tribute to RSS founder Hedgewar and second ‘sarsanghchalak’ MS Golwalkar.

The visit is scheduled for 8am on Tuesday.

The BJP legislature party’s chief whip and Mumbai MLA Ashish Shelar invited legislators of the groups headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar through a letter.

A line in the letter, which is addressed to all ministers, MLAs and MLCs, states that attendance is mandatory.

However, a senior leader of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP said the deputy chief minister has a scheduled interaction with editors of local newspapers at 8am and, therefore, is unlikely to be part of the RSS memorial visit.

”We have already scheduled the programme with editors at his (Ajit Pawar’s) official residence. I cannot comment on whether he will go or not,” the senior leader said.

Other sources from the party maintained they would not visit the RSS headquarters.

The Winter session of the Maharashtra Legislature is underway here and BJP MLAs and MLCs visit the memorial every year.

Incidentally, Pawar, after joining the state government, has repeatedly claimed he will not give up his secular credentials.

The Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP joined the Shinde government, which also includes the BJP, on July 2 this year.