NCP supremo Sharad Pawar says, 'Ajit is still our leader'
- EP News Service
- Aug 25, 2023
(From left) Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar
PUNE: In a bizarre twist to the saga of the split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) orchestrated by Ajit Pawar, the party supremo said, "There is no conflict that Ajit is our leader," and not only that senior Pawar also went on to deny a split in the party saying that a split happens when a major chunk of the party steps out at the national level.
Addressing media persons in the stronghold home turf of Baramati, as he was leaving for Kolhapur, where he is scheduled to address a rally later in the day, Pawar said, "How does a split happen in a party? It happens when a big group separates from the party at the national level. But there is no such situation in NCP today. Yes, some leaders took a different stance but this can’t be called a split. They can do so in a democracy."
Pawar statement comes a day after NCP's working president and a member of parliament from Baramati Supriya Sule also said that there was no split in the party and that the BJP had only managed to get some of the party MLAs in the ruling alliance.
When Sule was asked about the rift she said, "Ajit Pawar is a senior leader and MLA of the party, yes now he has taken a stand that is against the party, and we have given a complaint to the assembly speaker and are awaiting his response."
Earlier in the week, addressing NCP workers at a social media meeting in Pune, senior Pawar had said that some members left the NCP as the central government had launched an inquiry against them through the Enforcement Directorate, further adding that their claim that they wanted to be a part of the government for the cause of development was not correct.
Pawar had also said that some members from the Ajit Pawar faction were advised to join the BJP or they would be sent somewhere else. He also took the name of former home minister Anil Deshmukh who was in jail for 14 months saying that even though he was asked to change his loyalty to escape the investigations, he stood firm on his decision and did not quit NCP.
On 2nd July, Pawar's nephew and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar staged a split in the party as he along with eight other NCP MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state and was made second deputy chief minister along with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis.
Reporter
Crisp, and to the point news coverage from India and around the world.
View Reporter News