Mumbai: NCP’s Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and some ministers from his camp met party president Sharad Pawar here on Sunday and requested him to keep the Nationalist Congress Party united, party leader Praful Patel said. Patel said the NCP chief listened to him silently but did not react.
The unscheduled meeting was the first between the Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar camps after he rebelled against his uncle and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government on July 2.
Besides Ajit Pawar, ministers Hasan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal, Aditi Tatkare and Dilip Walse Patil met the senior Pawar at the YB Chavan Center in south Mumbai.
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Sources in the Sharad Pawar camp said that NCP state president Jayant Patil and NCP (Sharad Pawar camp) chief whip Jitendra Awhad also reached the Chavan centre.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, NCP’s Rajya Sabha member Praful Patel, who is from the Ajit Pawar camp, said Sharad Pawar is like a role model for us and they met him to seek his blessings.
Patel said, “We requested him (Sharad Pawar) to keep the NCP united. We also asked him to think about our request and guide us in the next few days. He listened to us quietly but said nothing.” “
He said that the ministers of the Ajit Pawar camp had not taken an appointment with Sharad Pawar in advance, but when they came to know that he was present there, they straightaway came to the Chavan Centre.
Commenting on the meeting, BJP’s Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar said, “The Ajit Pawar faction still considers Sharad Pawar as its leader. There is nothing wrong in meeting the senior leader.”
Notably, Ajit Pawar had on Friday visited the NCP founder’s wife Pratibha Pawar at her Silver Oak residence after undergoing surgery at a hospital here.
Ajit Pawar is considered close to his aunt Pratibha. In 2019, she and Devendra Fadnavis formed a short-lived government after the assembly elections, following which he was reportedly instrumental in bringing her back to the NCP.
Ajit Pawar and eight NCP MLAs joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government on 2 July and took oath as deputy CM and minister respectively.
On Friday, Ajit Pawar was allotted a crucial finance portfolio, while his camp managed to get the ministries of cooperation and agriculture, which were earlier represented by the BJP and Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.