You are now at right place after long time, but came very late: Amit Shah tells Ajit Pawar in Pune
Pune, Aug 6: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday shared the dais with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at an event in Pune and said the latter is now at the "right place after a long time", but "came very late".
Shah's statement comes more than a month after Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, joined the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Eknath Shinde along with eight party MLAs on July 2.
Pawar was made deputy chief minister, while the other eight MLAs, including Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil, were sworn in as ministers.
"This is my first public programme with Ajit Pawar. I want to tell him that he is now sitting at the right place after a long time. This was always the right place for you, but you came to sit here very late," Shah said.
Shah was speaking after launching the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) office.
CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis were also present at the event.
Speaking at the same event, Pawar praised Shah for bringing positive changes in the country's cooperative sector.
"Shah is a son-in-law of Maharashtra, hence he loves Maharashtra more than Gujarat from where he comes. Whether you agree or not, everyone develops more love towards the home of in-laws," Pawar said.
Shah's wife hails from Kolhapur city in western Maharashtra.
Pawar said, "We all witness the ongoing changes in the cooperative sector in the country. All these changes are introduced by Shah after holding discussions with all the stakeholders for the larger benefit of the state."
The cooperative sector is the only sector that has reached the grassroots level in the country, the Maharashtra deputy CM said.
"Gujarat and Maharashtra have a great legacy of cooperative movement and it will thrive further," he added.
In November 2019, after the assembly polls and the split between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as CM and Deputy CM, respectively, in an early morning ceremony at the Mumbai Raj Bhavan.
However, their government lasted just 80 hours with Pawar returning to the NCP.
Later, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as CM after his party joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
The MVA government, however, fell in June last year after Eknath Shinde and 39 MLAs revolted against Thackeray and split the Shiv Sena.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
