‘Sharad Pawar will not ally with BJP till his last breath’

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has assured his party workers that he would not ally with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) till his last breath and exhorted them not to believe speculation regarding the same, said NCP leaders from Pune who recently met with Mr. Pawar in Delhi.

Prashant Jagtap, the Pune city NCP president and a Sharad Pawar loyalist, said on Wednesday that at a meeting of NCP workers from Pune in Delhi earlier this week, Mr. Pawar had categorically told them he would never align himself to a party with “a wrong ideology.”

“On August 7, we had a meeting with Sharad Pawar in Delhi More than 200 workers from Pune met him. He heard out the confusion prevailing in their minds and clearly told them he would never ally with the BJP till his last breath. The workers should be under no doubt on this count and not place trust on the gossip and rumours floating about on social media,” said Mr. Jagtap, who was on a tour of Manipur in a bid to show succour to the troubled northeastern state.

Mr. Jagtap further said that Mr. Pawar had told his cadre there was no need to feel any pressure owing to the leaders (Ajit Pawar-led rebel faction) who had deserted the party and aligned with the ruling BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena government.

“Mr. Pawar said leaders and MLAs do not represent the NCP. It is the workers who are the party’s backbone. He said that whatever the outcome of the legal battle over the party name and symbol currently on in the Election Commission, we had the strength to resurrect the party anew,” Mr. Jagtap said.

With the NCP patriarch planning to begin his statewide rallies on August 16 onwards, Mr. Jagtap said there was a possibility of Mr. Pawar holding a public address in Pune on August 28-29 to discuss strategy about rebuilding the party in Pune district.

On July 2, Mr. Pawar’s nephew, NCP leader Ajit Pawar along with eight other leaders were sworn-in as ministers in the ruling Eknath Shinde–Devendra Fadnavis.

Mr. Ajit Pawar has claimed to have the support of 40 of the 53 NCP MLAs and has said that the legislators supporting him had submitted affidavits to the ECI as well as the resolution passed by rebel faction members taken during a meeting on June 30 wherein the rebel leaders had elected Ajit Pawar as the NCP president.

However, the Sharad Pawar faction has contended that Ajit’s rebel faction has failed to demonstrate there exists a split in the NCP. Incidentally, despite staking claim to the party name and symbol, Mr. Ajit Pawar’s faction, too, claims that Sharad Pawar is their leader and keeps using the NCP patriarch’s picture on bill boards as well as in their party offices.