Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on June 21 raised political eyebrows yet again after he urged the party leadership to “free him” from his current party position of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Ajit Pawar’s statement, made during his address at the party’s 24th Foundation Day in Mumbai, comes amid intense speculation of his reportedly being disgruntled at being denied a party position at the NCP’s recent reshuffle at the party’s Foundation Day function in New Delhi earlier this month.
“I have worked in many different posts in the past years. I was not much interested in the post of Leader of Opposition. But the party top brass and our MLAs insisted I take it up… Some said I was not tough enough [on the ruling parties]…am I supposed to catch them by the scruff of their necks? So, I have expressed my wish to the senior leadership to free me from this post. Give me any post in the organisation that you think fit and I will do justice to it,” said Mr. Ajit Pawar.
While his cousin Supriya Sule (NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s daughter) was made party’s working president, Mr. Ajit Pawar was not given any post. At the same time, Mr. Ajit Pawar dismissed reports of him being “unhappy” after Ms. Sule and senior NCP leader Praful Patel were made working presidents of the outfit, stating that he already had the responsibility of being the LoP and preferred to remain active in Maharashtra’s politics rather than at the national level.
He further highlighted his contributions in the victory of several NCP MLAs in the 2019 Assembly election while underscoring his swift decision-making style of functioning.
Mr. Ajit Pawar, who is Mr. Sharad Pawar’s nephew, was alluding to the frequent accusation made by his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners and members within his party that he was allegedly soft on Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his Deputy and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, with whom he shares excellent personal relations.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ajit Pawar said that Mr. Sharad Pawar was “a bigger leader” than the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana and Bihar, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrasekhar Rao, and Nitish Kumar among others.
“If these leaders can win their respective States on their own, why cannot the NCP work towards this goal and win Maharashtra on its own strength given that Sharad Pawar is a bigger leader than all of them. We have to introspect whether we are falling short somewhere? Just showing enthusiasm during speeches will not do…we all have to work on the ground,” said the NCP leader.
Mr. Pawar further warned NCP cadre about the potential threat from Mr. Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which is trying to make inroads in Maharashtra, and Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in the upcoming election.
Mr. Ambedkar, who is an ally of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), which in turn is allied to the NCP in the MVA coalition, has been holding frequent talks with Mr. Rao.
“We cannot ignore K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Prakash Ambedkar Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in the upcoming election. In the 2019 Assembly election, the VBA had caused havoc for us and the Congress, leading to the defeat of a number of our candidates at the time,” Mr. Ajit Pawar said.
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