pune, Jan. 4 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday strongly reacted to remarks made by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar a day earlier, in which he accused the party of corruption in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and said he was now in power with those who had once levelled allegations of a Rs.70,000-crore corruption scam against him. While state BJP president Ravindra Chavan warned Pawar that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief would get into trouble if the BJP chose to respond, senior minister Chandrakant Patil cautioned the deputy chief minister not to forget that the state home department is with the BJP. Speaking at Pimpri on Friday, where the BJP and the NCP are contesting against each other in the civic polls, Pawar had also defended his party's decision to give tickets to candidates facing criminal cases. "Mere allegations don't mean one is guilty. They have to be proved. I was accused of Rs.70,000-crore corruption. What happened? I am in power with the same people who had made those allegations against me," he had said. Pawar also launched an attack on the BJP's governance record in the PCMC, accusing it of pushing the civic body into debt and mismanagement during its tenure. His remarks drew strong reactions from BJP leaders on Saturday. "Ajit Pawar should first introspect before making such allegations," said Chavan. "Which party are you speaking about? Are you speaking about the party of Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis? If we open our mouths, there will be trouble for you." In 2023, Pawar had joined the BJP-led coalition days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a rally, had spoken about the NCP leader's alleged involvement in the Rs.70,000-crore irrigation scam. Pawar subsequently split the NCP, joined the Mahayuti coalition and was made deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government. Higher and technical education minister and senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil also warned Pawar against making such remarks. "Don't take us lightly. The chief minister is ours, and we also have home department," he said. Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Pawar should have avoided such comments as both parties are part of the ruling coalition. "We have decided not to make a statement that would lead to serious differences among us. All should ensure that," he said. Reacting to Pawar's claim that corruption had plagued the PCMC for the past nine years and pushed it into debt, Chavan also pointed out that the BJP ruled the civic body from 2017 to 2022, after which it has been under an administrator appointed by the state government. Responding to Chavan's remarks, Pawar, speaking in Pune on Saturday evening, said, "Chavan is the state unit chief of the BJP, which is a large party. He has said what he wanted to say, and I have said what I wanted to." The PCMC is scheduled to go to the polls on January 15, along with 28 other municipal corporations across the state. Ajit Pawar's NCP is fighting the PCMC polls in alliance with the Sharad Pawar faction of the party, while the BJP is contesting independently. Meanwhile, the opposition also took potshots at Pawar and asked him to quit the government. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said, "If he has so many problems with BJP, he should quit the government and go back to Sharad Pawar, whose party he hijacked." Raut also said that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis should clarify the status of the irrigation scam probe....