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New Delhi: A day after his nephew Ajit Pawar chided him for not retiring from politics, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar Thursday said that there is no question of him hanging up boots and asserted that he remains effective, “whether 82 or 92”.
Ajit Pawar engineered a split in the NCP and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government Sunday. He is now the second deputy chief minister of Maharashtra along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
The NCP chief made the remarks at a press conference after a meeting of the NCP’s national working committee held at his official residence in Delhi. The committee ratified senior Pawar’s decision to expel the rebel faction leaders. These include Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare as well as Ajit Pawar and the other eight party MLAs who took oath as ministers.
His repeated assertions on still being in the driver’s seat stood out at the media interaction which lasted around 10 minutes.
“The question of stopping does not arise. Now, I will fight more effectively. I will remain effective whether 82 or 92,” Pawar said, responding to a question on his nephew’s barb regarding his age.
“They will have to pay the price for their moves against us,” Pawar said, adding that he wants to make it categorically clear that he is the “president of the NCP”.
“What do you mean the NCP is diminished? Some people joining the other side does not diminishes a party. We will rebuild the party. There is a groundswell of support for us which I have experienced during my district tours,” he said.
Jitendra Awhad, who has replaced Ajit as the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra, said 21 out of 27 members of the party’s working committee attended the meeting.
A resolution, passed at the meeting, stated that the NCP working committee “approves the decision taken by Hon’ble President of expelling Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and 9 NCP’s Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), Maharashtra who have joined hands with BJP.”
“The working committee empowers the Hon’ble President to initiate necessary actions against those who are acting against the political ethics, guidelines, principles, policies and ideology of the party and whose actions are detrimental to the interest of the party,” it added.
Apart from Sule and Awhad, NCP Rajya Sabha MPs Fauzia Khan and Vandana Chavan attended the meeting among others. The NCP has five MPs in the Lok Sabha, and four in the Rajya Sabha.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also met Pawar at his residence Thursday in the presence of Sule, Awhad and other leaders.
Also Read: ‘I want to lead…’ — Ajit Pawar lays bare his chief ministerial ambitions days after becoming dy CM
‘Meeting legal; have full faith in EC’
The NCP chief also questioned the rebel faction’s claim that two days before the split, Ajit Pawar was elected the party president by 40 MLAs, MLCs and MPs and that the decision was communicated to the Election Commission on 30 June.
“The EC will take a decision on the letter. But I did not know that it takes five days for important papers to reach one place from another in this country,” he said.
Pawar added that while he has “full faith” in the Election Commission, but if the party feels that the “legal position is being undermined”, it will explore the option of approaching other authorities.
He also took a jibe at Praful Patel, who was made the NCP working president along with Supriya Sule in June, saying, “I must accept that the agencies here are so effective.”
Pawar also dismissed Ajit’s statement that the meeting of the working committee held at his residence had no legal sanctity as the dispute on who represents the real NCP remains pending with the EC.
“…No person within the party has any authority to call for any meeting of the National Executive/National Working Committee…,” said Ajit in a press statement Thursday.
“Who said what does not matter as the meeting was completely legal,” Pawar asserted.
The veteran politician said he has no message for his nephew, whom he mentored. “For me, the party’s decision, thinking and ideology is supreme…someone wants to become the PM, some wants to become deputy CM, or CM, or army chief. I extend my best wishes to them,” he said.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
Also Read: How NCP’s Pawar vs Pawar feud is in keeping with Maharashtra’s tradition of uncle-nephew conflicts
