In the light of recent killing of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Baba Siddique, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is planning to again request veteran politician Sharad Pawar to accept the force’s Z plus security cover, sources aware of the matter said.
On August 21, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government accorded Z-plus - the highest category of armed VIP security cover - to the Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and Nationalist Congress Party-SP (NCP-SP) chief. However, Pawar turned it down saying it could be an arrangement to get "authentic information" about him as Maharashtra assembly polls are around the corner.
"A home ministry official told me that the government has decided to give three persons Z-plus security and I was one of them. I asked who the other two were. I was told RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Union Home Minister Amit Shah...Maybe since elections are approaching, this can be an arrangement to get authentic information (about me)," the 83-year-old politician said at the time.
The consent of the leaders is legally required before paramilitary forces can take charge of their security. In the meantime, the NCP-SP supremo continues to be guarded by Maharashtra police.
Pawar is reportedly the second senior politician to refuse CRPF’s security cover in the recent past, after Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann. Both leaders have said that they would inform the CRPF later if they the additional security.
Baba Siddique, 66, a prominent Muslim face from the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was shot dead in Bandra on October 12 near his son's office. He was a former three-time MLA from Bandra West and had switched to the NCP from Congress in February.
Maharashtra assembly polls will be held on November 20, while results will be declared on November 23.