Small person, won’t react, says Pawar over Patole’s claim

Days after the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole accused allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of back-stabbing and not fulfilling the promises, Sharad Pawar downplayed Patole

Days after the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole accused allies Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of back-stabbing and not fulfilling the promises, Sharad Pawar downplayed Patole. While responding to a question on Patole’s allegations, the NCP chief said he need not react to comments by “small people”.

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“These are small people. Why should I react? If Sonia Gandhi says something, I will give my reaction,” said Pawar during his interaction on Sunday at Baramati, his hometown.

Patole while accusing the allies in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had asked Congress workers to transform hardships into strength while reiterating his stance of going solo in the upcoming elections

Commenting on complaints from workers that Pune district guardian minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar was not helping them with their work, Patole during his interaction with party workers at Lonavla had asked them to keep calm and instead convert the anger into strength.

“The guardian minister is from Baramati. Whose work he is doing? Is he getting work done for our members? You need to convert this hardship into strength. Do not treat this hardship as mental weakness,” said Patole.

The MPCC chief had also accused both the MVA allies of not fulfilling the promises.

“It’s fine that they are not giving us our share, it will come to us. But you need to take a vow that one day, the guardian minister here will be from our party. If they do not want to compromise and backstab while being together, then we won’t say anything but transform our hardships into strengths.”

Reacting to the post of speaker, which is with Congress as part of an arrangement among MVA allies, Pawar said, “Our decision is clear and the post of the speaker is with Congress. Whomever they will decide will be the speaker.” On fighting elections solo, Pawar said every party has the right to expand the party base and there’s nothing wrong. “There shouldn’t be misunderstanding even leaders of all three parties say that their parties will fight polls alone. We are together in the government but not running parties together,” he said.

Patole on Friday had said, “I am not going to backtrack on what I said about fighting elections solo. The other day, CM also appealed [to Shiv Sena workers] to start preparing for polls. If I say something, it becomes a problem but now that he is saying it then it is okay.”