Ajit Pawar to attend Sharad’s birthday dinner

The guest list also includes National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and Shiv Sena’s RS member Milind Deora.

When Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, now of the NCP-SP turns 84 on Thursday, he will have a special guest at the birthday party. His nephew and the leader of the NCP, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar will be attending the small dinner party to be held in the Capital, HT has learnt.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. (PTI)

Confirming the dinner, Pawar senior’s office said that the party was “for close friends”. The office said it did not know about Ajit Pawar’s attendance, but the deputy CM’s aides said he is definitely attending although his wife and Rajya Sabha member Sunetra Pawar is“undecided” about her attendance. The guest list also includes National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and Shiv Sena’s RS member Milind Deora.

“They are family,” Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule simply said, although she added that she had no idea if her cousin Ajit Pawar would attend. “ All the grand children are going to come.”

This will be the first meeting between Sharad and Ajit Pawar in more than a year. While Pawar Jr dropped in at the Diwali lunch at his uncle’s house last year, this year, he could not as the festival came amidst the state elections. There Ajit Pawar was fighting against Pawar senior’s candidate and cousin Yugendra Pawar. The latter lost the electoral battle by more than a lakh.

Ajit Pawar’s behaviour and comments have suggested that he doesn’t want to make it personal with his uncle. He regretted making his wife Sunetra contest against cousin Supriya Sule in the Lok Sabha election. Sunetra lost that election and had to find her way to Parliament via the Rajya Sabha route. Ajit Pawar also told his supporters during the campaign to ensure that his uncle was not targeted. And, he also expressed regret recently at narrowly missing Pawar Sr at a public event.

For his part, Pawar Sr has also maintained that family ties stay intact.The latest meeting will yet again rekindle speculation about whether the two will reunite, although Pawar Sr has consistently maintained that this is not on the cards.