‘Mujhe nahi maloom’: Ajit camp leader on Sharad Pawar’s removal from top post

In a new twist to the ongoing uncle versus nephew battle between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar over the leadership of the Nationalist Congress Party, it came to light on Wednesday that two days before Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in as the deputy chief minister, he was elected as the president of the NCP and he already approached the Election Commission to stake claim over the party symbol.

While the details of the party meeting in which Sharad Pawar was replaced by Ajit Pawar as the party president, who attended it etc., were not revealed, NCP MP (Ajit Pawar group) Umesh Patil in a television interview said he was not aware of the meeting at all. “I was not present at that June 30 meeting. I got to know about this meeting from you,” Patil said.

“What is this joke going on in Maharashtra,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh tweeted sharing the video of the interview.

Sharad Pawar vs Ajit Pawar: Here are the top 10 updates of ‘Pawar play’ in Maharashtra

1. Both Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar put up their show of strength in Maharashtra on Wednesday. Around 32 MLAs attended Ajit Pawar’s meeting, while 18 MLAs were at Sharad Pawar’s conclave.

2. The political struggle turned into a personal attack as Ajit Pawar referred to Sharad Pawar’s old age (83) and said his political innings should be over.

3. Ajit Pawar did not conceal his ambition for the chief minister’s post, days after becoming the deputy chief minister for the 5th time.

4. “We had more MLAs than the Congress in 2004, but our senior leader allowed the Congress to bag the CM’s post,” Ajit Pawar said blaming Sharad Pawar for losing the chance of an NCP chief minister in 2004.

5. Ajit’s group informed the Election Commission through an affidavit that Ajit Pawar was elected the NCP chief through a resolution dated June 30, 2023 signed by an ‘overwhelming majority’ of members of the party.

6. Sharad Pawar in his address said everyone that has joined hands with the BJP to share power gets politically destroyed. Senior Pawar gave the examples of Akali Dal and that pf Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Nitish Kumar.

7. In a rerun of Sena versus Sena, Sharad Pawar asked why Ajit Pawar was using his photo.

8. Supriya Sule, Anil Deshmukh gave back the age jibe of Ajit Pawar. While Supriya Sule said she would not tolerate any insult to her father, Anil Deshmukh said the 82-year-old lion is still alive.

9. Sharad Pawar earlier said he would not fight Ajit Pawar legally. But on Wednesday, he made it clear that the symbol is not going anywhere.

10. Ajit Pawar’s ambition for the CM post led to some discomfort in the Shinde camp. Chief minister Eknath Shinde held a meeting with Shiv Sena leaders. Amid rumours and strong speculations that there will be a change in the chief minister’s post, leaders of his camp said everything is fine and Shinde will continue on the CM’s chair.