Sharad Pawar meets nephew Ajit; ally Sanjay Raut reacts
The meeting of Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar drew sharp comments from NCP (SP) ally and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut.
NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday met his nephew and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar at a meeting at Pune-based Vasantdada Sugar Institute, drawing sharp remarks from Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut.
Besides the two, the meeting of the governing council of the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, a government-recognized research institute, was attended by NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil and NCP's Dilip Walse Patil.
Raut, whose party is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance along with NCP (SP) and Congress, said that Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders do not maintain any contact with those who left.
"Everything is going fine between them...We do not even try to have any contact with those who quit the Shiv Sena. The way they betrayed Maharashtra and backstabbed it....we will not go anywhere near them," Raut was quoted as saying by PTI, referring to leaders of the rival Shiv Sena headed by deputy CM Eknath Shinde.
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He added that leaders of the NCP and NCP (SP) are part of institutes such as Vasantdada Sugar Institute and that his party does not have anything like that.
"They (leaders of NCP factions) have (institutions such as) the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Vidya Pratishthan, Rayat Shikshan Sanstha. We do not have anything like that. We do not have such meetings (with former party colleagues), and if there is a possibility of such a meeting, we avoid it. We do not believe in having dialogue in politics. We will keep fighting those who split our party and teach them a lesson," he said, according to PTI.
Last month, Raut had expressed resentment about Sharad Pawar felicitating and praising Shinde who split the Shiv Sena in 2022.
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Meanwhile, NCP (SP) working president Supriya Sule played down the significance of the meeting.
"Vasantdada Sugar Institute has persons from all parties as its members. Issues related to the sugar industry, farmers and allied businesses and new technology were discussed at the governing council meeting. It is an academic meeting where no politics or political ideologies are discussed," Sule told reporters, according to PTI.
Ajit Pawar also said that a meeting was held to discuss issues related to the sugar sector. "We are all members of the VSI, and we met to discuss various issues related to the sugar sector like the use of Artificial Intelligence," he said.
(Inputs from PTI)
