Ajit will never be chief minister: Pawar’s direct swipe at nephew

NCP President Sharad Pawar has stated that his nephew, Ajit Pawar, will never become the chief minister of Maharashtra, calling it a dream that will never come true. This comes after Ajit's rebel faction claimed control of the NCP and its election symbol.

Ajit Pawar will never become the chief minister of Maharashtra and his dream will never come true, said Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar in a direct attack on his nephew for the first time since the split in the party.

Ajit will never be chief minister: Pawar’s direct swipe at nephew

“It is a dream. It is something which is never going to happen,” Pawar said in Akola on Thursday while replying to a question on NCP national working president Supriya Sule’s remarks on Ajit.

On Wednesday, Sule indirectly mocked Ajit by saying that she would be the first person to felicitate his cousin if he became the chief minister for a full term of five years.

Hitting back, Ajit’s rebel faction called the statement Pawar’s opinion. “It is Pawar saheb’s opinion. His experience in politics spans 60 years and I will not respond to him if he has an opinion on a political matter. We all want Ajit dada (Pawar) to be seen as chief minister,” said Sunil Tatkare, state president of the rebel camp.

The Pawar senior also taunted Ajit for declaring himself national president of NCP. “I have no objection to it. I won’t take objection either if he declares himself tomorrow president of the United Nations.”

The veteran leader made these remarks while interacting with reporters after addressing a conclave on the cooperation sector.

Significantly, in the first hearing before the Election Commission of India (ECI) on October 6, the Ajit-led faction alleged that Pawar never followed democratic principles and ran the party arbitrarily. The allegations were made before Pawar who personally appeared for the hearing along with senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Ajit has made a claim on NCP’s name and its election symbol before ECI on grounds that he has been elected the new national president and most of the elected representatives have rallied behind him.

Pawar also slammed those who claimed that he was behind the split in NCP and both the uncle, and his nephew were together. “Our stand is clear. The case before ECI is against me; they went ahead to file a case against me before the Supreme Court. Despite all this, if someone claims I’m behind all this then there must be some limitation.”

The former union minister also trained his guns on rebel leader Chhagan Bhujbal who claimed that Pawar had agreed to join hands with BJP. “Bhujbal may say anything he wants to, but the point is he got elected on NCP’s poll symbol. It is true that some in the party were insisting on it (joining hands with BJP). It was Bhujbal who proposed to appoint Supriya as national president, which she did not agree with, and it was also rejected because the next step after that would not have been acceptable to any of us (joining hands with BJP).”

Responding to a question about chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s statement over the chances of Ajit becoming future CM, Pawar said the three parties of Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would make all efforts to come to power after the assembly polls next year. MVA consists of NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT).

“This is possible considering the response we are getting from the people and if we could convert it into votes,” the 82-year-old leader said and added that the Peasants and Workers Party of India and Left parties among others would be part of their alliance.