All not well in NCP, state chief Jayant Patil unhappy
Instead of verifying the reports from party leaders, Patil, who was in Pune for some personal work, expressed his displeasure about the party not keeping him in the loop and holding a meeting in his absence.
Mumbai: All is not well in the Nationalist Congress Party after Sharad Pawar’s surprise announcement that he was resigning from the post of party chief. A certain unease prevails in a group of NCP leaders, who are now not sure about their future in the party. This was evident from state president Jayant Patil’s outburst over media reports that there was a meeting of NCP leaders in Mumbai on Wednesday to which he was not invited.
Instead of verifying the reports from party leaders, Patil, who was in Pune for some personal work, expressed his displeasure about the party not keeping him in the loop and holding a meeting in his absence. “I did not know that there was a meeting today,” he said in an instantaneous reaction. “No one had told me. I came to Pune in the morning for a scheduled meeting, and I will go back to Mumbai.”
Patil added that everyone wanted Pawar to withdraw his resignation. “Many people are calling me to know what is going on,” he said. “But I have no idea what was discussed about Supriya Sule’s name (likely candidature for the post). Nothing like this has been discussed before me. I am not a national-level worker, so I don’t know what the provisions for issues related to national affairs are.”
Soon after Patil’s outburst, Sule telephoned him to inform him that no meeting had been called, and NCP leaders had gathered at the Y B Chavan Centre on their own. Later, Patil too clarified this and said that no meeting had been called in Mumbai.
Praful Patel, NCP national vice-president also claimed that Patil was not unhappy. “You saw how emotional he was on Tuesday when Pawar saheb declared his resignation,” he said. “Patil had a meeting related to his sugar mill, thus he went to Pune and is coming back now.”
Patil is considered a Pawar loyalist. He and Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, do not share cordial relations, and thus at a time when Pawar appears to be “planning” to retire from the party chief’s post, several leaders like Patil are seeing uncertainty over their future in the NCP. A close aide of Patil revealed that the NCP state chief was also unhappy and disheartened that Pawar did not take him into confidence about his resignation despite him being his close confidante.
It was Patil who was chosen for the post of the NCP legislative party chief when Ajit decided to split the party by forming a government in alliance with the BJP in November 2019. He was also Pawar’s first choice for the Leader of the Opposition post after the dramatic fall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in June last year. However, Ajit Pawar gathered signatures of 38 MLAs supporting his candidature, forcing Pawar to take a decision in his favour, it is said.
(With inputs from Yogesh Joshi)