Touch his feet, seek his blessings; Praful Patel says Pawar Sr did not reply to them again
For the second day running, NCP MLAs from the Ajit Pawar camp met Sharad Pawar, seeking his blessings and guidance to keep the party united. The second meeting of the breakaway faction comes in the backdrop of anger expressed by NCP legislators, who were not part of the party MLAs who met Sharad Pawar on Sunday. The legislators on Monday questioned Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and other senior ministers for leaving them out.
On Sunday, Ajit and other senior party ministers made an impromptu visit to Sharad Pawar and sought his blessings. On the first day of the Monsoon Session of the state legislature, the MLAs supporting the rebel Ajit Pawar group held a meeting. According to sources present in the meeting, the MLAs strongly protested against those who met Sharad Pawar without taking them into confidence.
“The MLAs said that their decision to support Ajit Pawar by dumping Sharad Pawar is a major risk, especially when they have no ill feelings against Sharad Pawar. At such a time, when senior ministers visit him (Sharad) and apologise, they should have taken all MLAs along,” a source present at the meeting said. Realising their concerns, Ajit and Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel chose to make yet another visit to Sharad Pawar along with the MLAs. All MLAs touched the feet of Sharad Pawar on Monday.
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After the meeting, Patel said, “We again requested him to find a way to keep the party united. He did not reply to us today as well.”
Sharad Pawar supporter and NCP’s legislative party leader Jayant Patil said that the MLAs requested him (Sharad) to find a way out of the present situation. “Dialogue must continue in a democracy. Pawar saheb meets every person who comes to his office and he met all the MLAs today as well. There is no question of Pawar saheb diverting from his position of not joining hands with the BJP. Hence, there is no confusion about saheb’s position,” he said.
Unlike the Shiv Sena where for one year since the rebellion by Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde against Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, none of the sides have engaged in dialogue to mend differences, the NCP leadership has cautiously not broken communication lines yet. Both sides of the NCP have maintained that dialogue should continue. Even after the first rebellion of Ajit Pawar in 2019 when he took part in an early morning swearing-in ceremony with Devendra Fadnavis, his uncle and NCP president Sharad Pawar had deputed three senior leaders, namely Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil and Hasan Mushrif to continue talks with him.
Ever since the nine NCP MLAs led by Ajit Pawar were sworn in as ministers in the Shiv Sena- BJB government on July 2, Ajit has visited the residence of his uncle once to meet Sharad Pawar’s wife Pratibha, who is recovering from a surgery. Several senior ministers are in regular touch with Pawar family. In the last two days, two meetings between both the sides have been held. The NCP leadership has maintained that personal and political relations are different.
The uncertainty among NCP MLAs was visible on Monday when only 25 out of 53 MLAs were present inside the House on the first day of the Monsoon Session. Out of 25, the Opposition benches saw 10 NCP MLAs while 15 were seated in the ruling side. Sharad Pawar loyalist Jayant Patil said that irrespective of a few MLAs joining the government, the other NCP MLAs will sit on Opposition benches.
On Sunday, when asked about the seating arrangements, Ajit Pawar had said that one would come to know the reality on Monday. However, majority of NCP MLAs remained absent on the first day of the session.
First published on: 17-07-2023 at 17:01 IST
