Pune, Nov 8: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said he did not request Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold a campaign rally in his Baramati constituency because the fight there is within the family.

Pawar, the sitting MLA, is contesting against his nephew Yugendra Pawar, the candidate of the rival Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar.

The prime minister would be holding campaign rallies for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections starting Friday.

“Contest in Baramati is within the family,” Ajit told reporters here on Thursday when asked why the PM would not be holding a rally in his constituency.

The NCP led by Ajit Pawar is part of the ruling coalition along with the BJP and Shiv Sena.

Asked about NCP candidates also not seeking rallies of senior BJP leaders like Amit Shah in their constituencies, Pawar said it could be because there is not much time left for campaigning, and also due to the limit on election expenses.

Earlier in the day, when asked what would be his margin of victory in Baramati, the NCP chief said he would be able to tell that after moving around the constituency and talking to people. “But I can say with one hundred per cent certainty that it would be a good lead,” he said.

In the 2019 state elections, Ajit Pawar had won by a record 1.65 lakh votes, defeating BJP’s Gopichand Kundlik Padalkar.

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Kollam (Kerala) (PTI): A Kerala court has sentenced a 20-year-old man to 21 years of imprisonment for raping a minor girl after befriending her on a social media app.

Karunagappally Fast Track Special Court judge Rajeevan Vachal sentenced the convict to 21 years under the relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, special public prosecutor (SPP) N C Premchandran said.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.1 lakh on the convict, the prosecutor said.

The incident occurred in 2024 when the accused befriended her on a social media app and then offered to take her to the Azheekal beach here.

However, instead of taking her to the beach, he took her to an isolated place behind the CHC hospital at Mynagappally here and raped her, the SPP said.

Following the incident, the girl attempted suicide, but was saved and then told the doctors what had happened, the prosecutor said.

The hospital authorities informed the police, who registered a case and launched an investigation.

The prosecutor said that seven witnesses were examined and 20 documents were submitted before the court to substantiate the guilt of the accused.