Five NCP MLAs skip meeting called by Ajit Pawar

The missing MLAs were Dharmrao Atram, Narhari Zirwal, Rajendra Shingne, Anna Bansode and Sunil Tingre.

Mumbai: Amid speculation that some Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLAs are in touch with the Sharad Pawar faction of the party, five legislators from deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s camp were absent for a meeting called by him to review the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections and plan for the upcoming state assembly polls.

Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar. (Praful Gangurde / HT photo)

The missing MLAs were Dharmrao Atram, Narhari Zirwal, Rajendra Shingne, Anna Bansode and Sunil Tingre. The meeting was held at a five-star hotel in south Mumbai, where around 35 MLAs and other senior NCP leaders were present.

Following the meeting, Ajit Pawar appeared before the media for the first time after the NCP won just one of the four seats it contested in the elections. The deputy chief minister dismissed the speculation about his MLAs defecting to the NCP (Sharad Pawar) as baseless.

According to NCP insiders, Tingre and Zirwal are travelling abroad, Atram and Shingne said they were unwell, while Bansode cited a personal reason for not attending Thursday’s meeting. In the meeting, Pawar asked his MLAs if any of them were interested in switching sides to the Sharad Pawar camp, to which they responded negatively.

NCP faced a jolt in the recently held Lok Sabha elections despite being part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state. During the meeting, Ajit Pawar accepted responsibility for the party’s defeat, adding that he was surprised with the result in Baramati, his home turf. His wife Sunetra Pawar lost to Sharad Pawar’s daughter and sitting MP Supriya Sule by over 150,000 votes in the constituency.

The Baramati defeat led to speculation that some NCP MLAs were uneasy about continuing with the party. It intensified when NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of Sharad Pawar, claimed that 19 NCP MLAs were in touch with them. This pushed the NCP to advance its MLA meeting by a day.

Hours before Ajit Pawar’s clarification, state NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil said the party is not in a hurry to induct any of Ajit Pawar’s MLAs even if they approach them because the people’s mandate is more important.

“Our party has become clean now. We have to think about it because the people want clean politics, which is clear in their mandate,” he said. Patil also said there is more unrest against the state government than the central government.