Even as Maharashtra Deputy CM and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar’s visit to NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s residence in Pune on Tuesday raised eyebrows, the NCP quickly scotched rumours suggesting that Ms. Pawar had actually met the 83-year-old Sharad Pawar.
After Sunetra Pawar, now a Rajya Sabha MP, was seen visiting Modibaug in Pune (Sharad Pawar’s) official residence, speculation raged as to whether she had met Mr. Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule – who had defeated Ms. Pawar in the hotly contested Baramati Lok Sabha constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election.
Categorically refuting such suggestions, Maharashtra NCP Spokesperson Suraj Chavan clarified that there was no meeting between Ms. Pawar and Mr. Sharad Pawar and that Ms. Pawar had in fact gone to meet Mr. Ajit Pawar’s sister, who lived in another wing in Modibaug.
“Sunetra Pawar visited Modi Baug where our party president Ajit Pawar’s sister resides in another wing. So, there is no truth in the reports of her meeting with NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar,” Mr. Chavan said in a video message.
The speculation gained traction as Ajit Pawar-led NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal had met Sharad Pawar at the latter’s Mumbai residence on Monday to seek his intervention in defusing tensions over the Maratha reservation issue and the OBC backlash.
Both Mr. Bhujbal and his party had clarified that the meeting was “not a political one” but was held with a view to inform Mr. Sharad Pawar about the status of the ongoing agitations by both the Maratha and OBC communities and to seek his guidance.
The recent election saw Mr. Sharad Pawar trounce his rebellious nephew Ajit Pawar in key Lok Sabha seats.
While both leaders have ruled out a ‘patch-up’ of their factions, they have begun gearing up to face-off in the forthcoming Assembly election.
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, Mr. Sharad Pawar had effectively ‘isolated’ Mr. Ajit Pawar within the Pawar clan itself. He is now projecting Ajit’s own nephew - the youthful Yugendra Pawar - as a possible contender to take on Mr. Ajit Pawar in the Baramati Assembly segment.
