Maharashtra deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sunetra Pawar on Tuesday convened a meeting of party lawmakers at her official residence amid continuing speculation of friction within the party, people familiar with the matter said.
All members of the state’s legislative assembly and council have been told to attend the meeting, which is seen as an effort by the party leadership to project unity.
The meeting comes days after a delegation of senior party officials including NCP working president Praful Patel and state ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, traveled to New Delhi to meet with Union home minister Amit Shah.
Deep Dive
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Neither Sunetra nor her son, Rajya Sabha member Parth Pawar attended the Delhi meeting.
A senior NCP functionary said, “The meeting is important in the backdrop of what is happening in the party. A message of unity is necessary when there is so much negativity surrounding the party”.
On Monday, NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil dismissed speculation of a rift in the party. He said the two leaders did not attend Sunday’s meeting because they had recently met Shah and had asked the home minister to meet the other party leaders as well.
{{/usCountry}}On Monday, NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil dismissed speculation of a rift in the party. He said the two leaders did not attend Sunday’s meeting because they had recently met Shah and had asked the home minister to meet the other party leaders as well.
{{/usCountry}}Against the backdrop of the denials, MLA Manikrao Kokate doubled down on critics of Sunetra Pawar and her son.
Kokate, a former minister who is known to be a Pawar family loyalist, on Tuesday said that the family of late party leader Ajit Pawar, who died in a plane crash in January, would have the final say in running the party and those opposing its decisions should leave the party.
Kokate also insisted that there would be no split in the party as its entire rank and file is with deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar, who succeeded Ajit Pawar as the NCP leader, and her family. Kokate, a family loyalist, refrained from naming any leaders.
The issue also figured at the core committee meeting on Monday, where some senior leaders objected to appointments to key organisational positions being made without consulting them.
Rumours of a rift within the NCP began soon after Sunetra Pawar took charge as NCP chief in February and introduced a series of organisational and constitutional changes. Among the most contentious was the removal of senior leaders such as Praful Patel as national working president and Sunil Tatkare as Maharashtra state president. She later clarified that the omissions were inadvertent, but the changes were never reversed.