Mumbai: A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar announced his decision to resign as party’s president, senior NCP leaders went into a huddle Wednesday to discuss the next possible step.
Senior party leaders such as Baramati MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, Baramati MLA and the NCP supremo’s nephew Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil, among others, attended the meeting at YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai.
Speaking to reporters outside YB Chavan Tuesday, Bhujbal said: “There is no meeting of the committee happening today. Some of our colleagues are outside Mumbai in connection with the recently-concluded APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee) elections. The few of us who were here came here to meet Pawar saheb to see if we can still get him to change his mind. A meeting of the committee will officially be called in the next two days.”
Speaking to the media earlier in the day, he had said that leaders want Sharad Pawar to continue as president but if he doesn’t change his mind then Sule could take up the responsibility of the party at the national level and Ajit Pawar could be in-charge of Maharashtra — the party’s home ground and the most important state for the political outfit. Later, Bhujbal clarified that these were his personal opinions.
On Tuesday evening, these leaders had met Sharad Pawar at his Mumbai residence, Silver Oak, and urged him to continue as NCP President in the wake of protests by party workers across the state. Following this, the former three-time Maharashtra chief minister had requested two to three days to think about it.
Party sources told ThePrint that while Wednesday’s meeting was not an official one of the committee formed by Sharad Pawar to decide his successor, senior leaders planned to discuss an option of keeping the NCP president’s post vacant if their octogenarian leader doesn’t take back his decision to resign.
NCP leader Praful Patel also denied there was a party meeting Wednesday.
“Pawarsaheb had asked for 2-3 days to think. He has still not clarified to anyone what is on his mind. There is no point in speculating. If there is a meeting, we will declare it,” he told reporters.
On whether Supriya Sule is being considered as a national working president, Patel said: “Bhujbal saheb said what he personally felt. But more was read into it and it was projected as if it is final and going to happen today itself”.
NCP’s multiple power centres
The question of who will take over the reins of the NCP in a post Sharad Pawar era has caused ample silent friction within the party, which has multiple power centres — Sharad Pawar’s daughter Sule, nephew Ajit Pawar and, more recently, leaders such as Jayant Patil, who has developed a considerable following for himself in the party ever since he became Maharashtra NCP President in 2018.
Meanwhile, Jitendra Awhad, senior party MLA and the NCP’s national general secretary, Wednesday resigned from his post along with a handful of other office bearers from Thane, from where Awhad hails.
Sharad Pawar had Monday announced his decision to step down as party president towards the end of his speech during the release of his updated autobiography, Lok Maze Sangaati (People, my companions).
To take a call on his succession, he formed a committee of senior leaders and key party functionaries.
Upset party workers had offered to resign if Sharad Pawar didn’t take back his decision. Senior party leaders such as Awhad and Patil were in tears during their speeches urging Sharad Pawar to stay on as party president.
Nephew Ajit Pawar was the only party leader who did not appeal to Sharad Pawar to withdraw his decision to resign as NCP chief. Instead, he said: “Considering his age, we are thinking about saheb and everybody else and trying to give the party’s reins to a new leadership. This leadership will work for the party under saheb’s mentorship. Any fool also will be able to tell that saheb is the party.”
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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