Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will visit Beed for a District Planning and Development Council (DPDC) meeting on Thursday.

This will mark the NCP leader’s first trip to the district since taking charge of its guardianship. Beed has been in the spotlight recently due to the brutal murder of Massajog sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh.

It has also been making headlines following the alleged involvement of Walmik Karad, a close associate of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dhananjay Munde, in the case.

Recently, Pawar dissolved the NCP’s working committee in Beed after Vishnu Chate, the NCP president of Kej Taluka, was arrested in connection with the Deshmukh murder. Chate had been appointed at the recommendation of Karad. It is expected that Pawar will review the list of new committee members after the DPDC meeting.

BJP MLA and Environment Minister Pankaja Munde will join Pawar at the meeting. The two had a brief discussion on Wednesday at Mantralaya, and Munde will travel alongside Pawar to Sambhaji Nagar for the event. There is growing curiosity whether Dhananjay Munde will attend the meeting, given the ongoing controversies surrounding him.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Dhananjay Munde to resign his ministerial position. The Deshmukh murder remains unresolved, with one accused, Krishna Adnhale, still at large. Allegations against Munde continue to grow, with BJP MLA Suresh Dhas and MP Supriya Sule calling for his resignation. Despite this, Munde has maintained that he will not resign unless he is held guilty by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis or Pawar. During a trip to Delhi, where he met Union Minister Pralhad Joshi to discuss matters related to his department, Munde addressed the media, stating that if he is found guilty, he would step down.

Sule, an NCP MP, has sharply criticised Munde, pointing out that several members of her party were arrested in the past based on mere hearsay. She added that if she had faced similar allegations for 50 days, she would have resigned voluntarily to avoid causing further embarrassment to the party.

In a related development, Beed MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar, once a close associate of Dhananjay Munde, has claimed that Munde is unlikely to resign. Kshirsagar posted on social media, asserting that both Munde and his political allies, including Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, have a close relationship that makes his resignation highly improbable, regardless of the evidence.

On the eve of Pawar’s visit, BJP MLA Suresh Dhas made explosive claims against Dhananjay Munde. Dhas accused Munde of misappropriating government funds, alleging that between 2021 and 2024, Munde withdrew Rs73.36 crore without any legitimate work being completed. Dhas, a five-time MLA from Ashti taluka in Beed, expressed his intention to bring this issue in front of Fadnavis and Pawar during the DPDC meeting. He further alleged that Munde had manipulated the district’s budget, using most of it for his constituency, Parli, while leaving other areas with minimal funding. Dhas also claimed that a subordinate officer, Sanjay Munde, was appointed as executive engineer for a day to approve fake bills on Munde’s behalf.

“I have the entire list. Crores of rupees were withdrawn without doing a single work. There is a DPDC meeting on Thursday, I will make a complaint about it before Devendra Fadanvis and Ajit Pawar. I want to bring to the notice of Pawar, what his leader is doing in Beed,” he said.