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Right time to create new leadership, says Pawar
The remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the widespread speculation that his nephew and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar is to join hands with the ruling BJP along with a group of MLAs. Ajit Pawar is considered Number Two in the party after the senior Pawar and wields influence over a significant number of MLAs. However, both Pawar and Ajit have dismissed the speculation.
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Mumbai: NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, while addressing a youth gathering of his party in Chembur on Wednesday, declared that it was the right time to promote new leadership in the party. He also emphasised that party leaders and workers should have clarity about their ideology.
The remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the widespread speculation that his nephew and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar is to join hands with the ruling BJP along with a group of MLAs. Ajit Pawar is considered Number Two in the party after the senior Pawar and wields influence over a significant number of MLAs. However, both Pawar and Ajit have dismissed the speculation.
“We need to create new leadership in the party,” said Pawar, while addressing the gathering. “The time has come to keep the bread rotating; else it will burn. This is the right time to do it, without which things will not work.”
The NCP leader averred that all party members needed to have clarity on ideology while working for the party. “Why have we accepted NCP? Why are we working for it? Why do we take the names of Shahu Maharaj, Mahatma Phule and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar? What ideals have these personalities left for us (to follow)?” he said, hinting that the party could never compromise on its ideology.
The statement is being seen as a reply to those NCP leaders who are in favour of forging an alliance with the BJP, ignoring ideological differences. Both the NCP and the BJP follow very different ideologies: while the NCP believes in secularism, BJP is right-wing and Hindutvavadi.
Pawar, to buttress his statement about new leaders, asked the state president and Mumbai presidents of the party to accommodate the workers in the youth wing for five to six years in the main organisation and also give them responsibilities. “Those who come out with flying colours should be given a chance to contest corporation elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ajit supporters have started putting up hoardings at various places, declaring him the future chief minister of Maharashtra. The hoardings have been installed in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Nagpur, and on Tuesday, similar hoardings were put up in Osmanabad and Pune. However, when asked about this in a media interaction held during the day, the senior Pawar termed the move as ‘madness’. “He (Ajit Pawar) himself has told workers to stop this madness,” he said.
