NCP Chief Sharad Pawar gets Income Tax notice over poll affidavits

Mumbai, July 01: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar received notices from the Income Tax Department in connection with the poll affidavits filed by him during the 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2020 General Elections.

"I have received a love letter, a love letter from the income tax relating to poll affidavits filed in 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2020," Pawar tweeted.

He also spoke about the alleged misuse of central agencies under the BJP government, claiming that he received letters from the Income Tax department regarding his election affidavits in 2004, 2009 and 2014.

"The help of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and central agencies are being used nowadays and the results are visible. Many members of the Legislative Assembly say they have received notices of inquiry. This new method has started. We didn't even know the name ED five years ago. Today, even in the villages, people jokingly say that you will have ED behind you," Pawar added.

Pawar expressed his "shock" over the BJP's central leadership picking Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde over its own Devendra Fadnavis for the post of Chief Minister post in Maharashtra.

He said that Shinde himself might not have expected to be made the Maharashtra CM. "I don't think that the one who led MLAs to Assam had expected more than the post of Dy CM. But in BJP, as per order- be it from Delhi or Nagpur -CM post has been given to Eknath Shinde...The person who was CM & LoP has been asked to take oath as Dy CM. It's shocking," news agency ANI quoted Sharad Pawar as saying.

Pawar felt that Fadnavis is not happy with the Deputy CM post and it was visible on his face, "But he had lived in Nagpur, it is his ethos as an (RSS) swayamsevak, so he accepted the position," the NCP leader said.

Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was on Thursday sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister, while BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy chief minister.