Mumbai, April 9 Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said on Thursday that the opposition had an opportunity to get its demand for the registration of an FIR in the Ajit Pawar plane crash fulfilled in exchange for the withdrawal of the Congress candidate from the Baramati assembly bypoll.
He said there was a chance before the opposition parties to "expose" the BJP.
Raut was responding to reporters' queries about the Congress' withdrawal of its candidate, Akash More, from the bypoll to the Baramati assembly segment, from where Deputy Chief Minister and NCP president Sunetra Pawar is in the fray.
More withdrew his nomination as per the party leadership's decision on the last day of nomination withdrawal.
The bypoll is necessitated due to the death of the then deputy CM Ajit Pawar, who represented the Baramati seat eight times. The by-election will be held on April 23, and there are a total of 23 candidates in the fray after the deadline for nomination withdrawal ended.
Opposition parties in the state have been demanding the filing of an FIR in the Baramati plane crash that killed Ajit Pawar along with four others on January 28.
An FIR is needed to investigate the air crash of Ajit Pawar, and the government appears unconcerned even in booking the aviation company whose aircraft crashed.
Earlier in the day, NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar met state Congress Harshwardhan Sapkal, urging him to ask his party candidate Akash More to withdraw from the race.
"Why is he (Rohit Pawar) giving up on his basic demand of getting an FIR registered? This is the right opportunity to get the FIR registered and expose the BJP," Raut said.
The Congress had earlier said that it would withdraw from the Baramati bypoll race if an FIR is registered in the plane crash.
Raut said the demand for an FIR in the death of Ajit Pawar should have been made by Sunetra Pawar and their sons Parth and Jai.
On the alleged spat between a Trinamool Congress delegation and the chief election commissioner on Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha member said the behavior of the poll body is an assault on democracy.
The TMC's delegation meeting with the Election Commission to raise issues related to SIR in West Bengal saw acrimonious exchanges, with the party leaders claiming the CEC asked them to "get lost" and the poll panel accusing them of "shouting".
"This means the EC has merged with the BJP. The poll panel should hoist the BJP's flag over its office and state that it is the sister organization of the ruling party," Raut said.