Sharad Pawar snubs Ajit, seeks to end row

While drawing curtains on the controversy over Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s crass remark on drought, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has ensured his nephew was reprimanded for his verbal antic. HT reports.

While drawing curtains on the controversy over Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s crass remark on drought, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has ensured his nephew was reprimanded for his verbal antic.

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Speaking at a press conference on Saturday in Thane, Pawar said Ajit’s remarks were improper and that he should not have said what he did.

Last week, addressing a public meeting in a village in Pune’s Indapur, Ajit had mocked a farmer from a drought-hit area in Solapur who has been on a hunger strike at Azad Maidan.

He had asked whether people should urinate into empty dams to fill them up, drawing sharp criticism from all quarters.

“Ajit or any other leader should choose his language carefully,” Pawar said.

Pawar also reproached Ajit for his statement that NCP MLAs would decide whether he should resign or not. “The decision on resignation will be taken by the party, not the MLAs,” the senior Pawar said, when asked about the same.

He said that senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde, who was deputy CM in the Sena-BJP government, had made some controversial remarks in the legislature but the matter ended after Pawar’s intervention.

The Opposition has been stalling the budget session over Ajit’s remark on the dam.

They have demanded his resignation and have asked CM Prithviraj Chavan to apologise on his behalf before allowing the Houses to function smoothly.