Springing a surprise, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said he is stepping down as chief of the NCP, the political outfit he founded and has helmed since 1999.
Popularly known as 'Ajit Dada', he was known to say things as they were, without couching it in any soft padding.
Even as the two parties appeared confident that they have reached out to every voter and publicised their new symbols, experts suggested varying impact of the split and the symbols on the vote bank.
Addressing a Social Unity Conference in Navi Mumbai on Sunday evening, Pawar also criticised the Centre's handling of the ethnic strife in Manipur, which has claimed several lives since last May.
Thousands of supporters gathered to pay their last respects, chanting slogans in his memory. The large turnout and emotional farewell highlighted Ajit Pawar's strong grassroots connect and his significant influence in Maharashtra politics.
'Perhaps, he must have thought that it was time to pass on the baton to the younger generation.'
Pawar was amenable to increasing the height of the boundary walls of his house in Delhi as part of the enhanced security measures.
As the meeting was underway, several NCP workers wearing caps with the message 'I am with saheb' demanded that NCP president Sharad Pawar reconsider his decision to step down as party chief.
The action comes a day after Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government as deputy chief minister along with eight other NCP MLAs who were inducted as ministers. Tatkare's daughter Aditi was among the ministers who took oath on Sunday.
In a major setback to party founder Sharad Pawar, the Election Commission of India also allotted the NCP symbol 'Wall Clock' to the group led by Ajit Pawar.
He expressed confidence that the Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, NCP (Sharad Pawar group) and Congress will come to power in Maharashtra after the 2024 elections.
NCP MP Supriya Sule and other party leaders accompanied the 38-year-old legislator till the entrance of the probe agency's office.
The talks about the reunification had already started when Ajit Pawar was alive. In fact, the two parties even contested the civic polls in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad together.
NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar has thrown his weight behind villagers in Solapur, Maharashtra, who are demanding a repoll using ballot papers after raising doubts about the accuracy of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Pawar met with villagers in Markadwadi, where a police case was filed against over 200 people for attempting to conduct an unauthorized re-election. He expressed support for their concerns, claiming that the villagers were "the ones who thought of conducting polls using ballot papers." Pawar criticized the police action, calling it a restriction on the villagers' right to assemble and vowing to raise the issue with the Chief Minister, the state Chief Electoral Officer, the Prime Minister, and the Election Commission of India.
Bhujbal said the recent developments in the NCP happened after legal experts were consulted to escape disqualification.
"If someone wants to go, irrespective of the party, no one stops him. Leadership is needed for this, there is no need to work yourself to stop it. The leader should take care of how to make the organisation healthy by being on the front foot. But there is nothing like this (possibility of disintegration) in our party," he said.
This is the second meeting of Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as Maharashtra deputy chief minister on July 2, and his MLAs with the NCP supremo in two days.
If false accusations are levelled against me, I will have no choice but to make audio-visual evidence public, Fadnavis said.
The NCP chief was accompanied by his wife Pratibha Pawar, Rajya Sabha member Vandana Chavan, NCP spokesperson Ankush Kakde, party's Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap and many other party workers.
Pawar was addressing an election campaign rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad and announced the development.
'We were discussing government formation with Sharad Pawar. We had even finalised portfolio distribution and guardian ministers' responsibilities'
A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as the political outfit's chief, he stuck to his daily routine of meeting people including party functionaries in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Two months after the death of Ajit Pawar, leaders within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are advocating for a merger with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), amidst internal disputes and banner controversies.
The bench gave liberty to Sharad Pawar to move the poll panel for allocation of the party symbol and directed the poll panel to allot it in one week of the application.
NCP led by the former Union minister said the Election Commission had sought its response to a petition filed by Ajit Pawar, and the party submitted its "preliminary response" to the poll panel on September 7.
When asked to spell out the exact number of MLAs backing Ajit Pawar, Patel claimed the entire party (53 MLAs) is together.
The MLA claimed his name had figured in the list of nine ministers of NCP, including Ajit Pawar who took oath last Sunday.
Senior NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil has ruled out the possibility of a merger between the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party, stating that talks ceased following the death of Ajit Pawar.
The NCP and NCP (SP), led by Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar respectively, have formed an alliance for the upcoming Pune Municipal Corporation elections. This development follows a similar alliance for the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation elections and aims to consolidate their position in the region.
The chief minister's reply came on a query on Sharad Pawar's statement a day before wherein he said there was no split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar is its leader. Pawar later denied making such a statement.
Ajit Pawar had also slammed Raut without taking the latter's name and said spokespersons of other parties were behaving like NCP's spokespersons.
Despite forging an alliance with the faction led by his uncle, Nationalist Congress Party chief and Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday failed to protect the party's traditional bastions of Pune and neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, as the Bharatiya Janata Party decimated both the NCPs in the municipal corporation elections.
'I don't know if she is doing it willingly or not, but she is respecting the sentiments of the party.'
The Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP will hold their meetings in Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in south Mumbai and Bhujbal Knowledge City in suburban Bandra, respectively.
Notably, amid rumours that he is cosying up with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Ajit Pawar on Friday said he would '100 per cent like to be the chief minister' of Maharashtra and that the NCP can stake a claim to the post of the CM 'now also' instead of waiting for 2024 when assembly polls are due in the state.
About Ajit Pawar appearing to be the only NCP leader favouring his uncle's decision, Rane said, "Ajit was making big speeches. He found Pawar's decision correct while the party workers hold a contrarian view."
Ajit's uncle and NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar, however, has urged people not to politicise the death of his nephew.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was on Friday admitted to Escorts Hospital in Delhi after he complained of restlessness and uneasiness.
Pawar reminded PM Modi of his recent remarks about 'corruption' of NCP leaders, and asked him to act against those who are guilty.
Ahead of being sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra third time in four years, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar had called a meeting of party leaders and MLAs at his official residence in Mumbai.
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