Sharad Pawar will stay away from civic polls: Rohit Pawar

Responding to questions on whether this marked the first step towards a merger of the two NCP factions, Rohit denied any such move

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Monday said party supremo Sharad Pawar will not campaign in the upcoming municipal elections and will not involve in the seat distribution talks as he has empowered local leaders and workers to make decisions for civic polls.

Sharad Pawar has empowered party workers and local leaders to make decisions for civic elections, Rohit Pawar said. (FILE)

Rohit said, “Sharad Pawar has not involved himself in municipal elections in the past few years and will continue to stay away this time as well. He has empowered party workers and local leaders to make decisions for civic elections.”

“Considering Pawar saheb’s style of functioning, he had asked leaders to listen to the sentiments of workers and take decisions accordingly. In Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, nearly 95% of party workers expressed their wish to go with Ajit Pawar-led NCP. We respected the workers’ voices and decided to come together,” he said.

Responding to questions on whether this marked the first step towards a merger of the two NCP factions, Rohit denied any such move. “These are municipal elections, and every city has a different formula. In Nashik, Ajit Pawar’s NCP and Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena have come together. If this were the beginning of a merger, the same formula would be seen across Maharashtra. That is not the case. The decision in Pune was taken purely at the request of workers,” he said.