MUMBAI: Just a day after his nephew, Ajit Pawar orchestrated a split in the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and was sworn in the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadanvis, Pawar, on Monday hit the roads.

Accompanied by his wife Pratibha Pawar, Sharad Pawar left Pune for Karad to visit the memorial of Maharashtra's first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan who is also considered to be his political mentor.

He was joined by several of his party workers including Rajya Sabha member Vandana Chavan, NCP spokesperson Ankush Kakde, party's Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap and scores of supporters.

On Sunday, July 2, Ajit Pawar shocked everyone as he led a split and joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government along with 8 NCP leaders who were sworn in as ministers while claiming that he had the backing of nearly 40 MLAs from the party who would be joining him soon. 

Some very senior leaders of NCP joined hands with Ajit Pawar to ditch senior Pawar and included some of his former close confidants like Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif, Dilip Walse Patel, Aditi Tatkare and Anil Patil from Amalner in Jalgaon District.  

Reacting to the split by his nephew, Sharad Pawar had said that some of the MLAs have reached out to him and that they were taken to the Governor's house, the Raj Bhavan against their wishes and that they would return to his fold in a few days. However except actor-turned-politician Dr Amol Kolhe an MLA from Shiur in Pune, no one else has returned to his camp.

After reaching Karad and paying tribute to the late Yashwantrao Chavan at his memorial, senior Pawar said he was not worried about any defection and that he would rebuild the party once again. 

He said he was starting from Karad on Monday being Guru Poornima, as the right day to begin his new journey, with his mentor's blessings he would now tour the entire state and would build new leadership in the party.

On the claims of Ajit Pawar that he and his group had joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government with his consent, Sharad Pawar said that Ajit did not have his blessings to join the government and that people should not be confused by such claims. He also said that the fact that he had hit the roads once again to rebuild NCP again should speak for itself and that he was not a party to Ajit and his group's decision.