Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Praful Patel.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Mumbai: Amid rumblings within the NCP, deputy chief minister and chief Ajit Pawar broke his silence and asserted that Chhagan Bhujbal was not upset over being ignored in Lok Sabha and denied berth in the Rajya Sabha.
Bhujbal, on his part, came to the defence of Pawar, the party president, saying that the latter cannot be held responsible for the electoral defeat of the NCP and the Maha Yuti dispensation.
The developments in the NCP gathered momentum after the party decided to send Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar to the Rajya Sabha.
Sunetra Pawar was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls from Baramati by sitting MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar’s uncle and mentor.
“Bhujbal is not upset….he himself has clarified on this. Sunil Tatkare (NCP Maharashtra unit president) and working president Praful Patel also clarified on it. Some people are making an issue out of it," Pawar said.
“The decision about nomination was taken by the parliamentary board and after that papers were filed,” he said.
Reacting to the absence of BJP and Shiv Sena leaders during the filing of nominations, he said, “Because of the funeral of Mumbai Cricket Association president Amol Kale, who passed away of heart attack, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis could not attend the nomination filing. I also told chief minister Eknath Shinde a day before that they would be going to file nomination papers.”
After Sunetra Pawar’s name was announced, Bhujbal had said, "Yes there were some aspirants and I too was keen to go to the Rajya Sabha, but the core group of the party leadership took a call to send Sunetra Pawar to the Rajya Sabha and we all agreed."
Earlier in the day, Bhujbal said, “We (NCP) were given only 4 seats out of the 48 seats for the Lok Sabha elections. Of those 4 seats, 2 were taken away from us. So among the two seats Raigad and Baramati, we won one."
“Now, how can someone say that we fought on 48 seats, we only got 2 seats. BJP lost in other states as well, such as Uttar Pradesh. Nobody thought that BJP would lose so many seats in Uttar Pradesh. So, blaming Ajit Pawar faction is not right,” he said.
It may be mentioned that Bhujbal was keen to contest the Nashik seat, however, sitting Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse refused to give it.
Bhujbal, an orator par excellence, was keen to go to the Rajya Sabha, however, the party decided to give it to Sunetra Pawar.
As part of the BJP-led formation, the NCP contested four seats while it gave one seat from its quota to RSP founder and Dhangar leader Mahadev Jankar, who lost in Parbhani.
The NCP contested four seats - Baramati, Shirur, Raigad and Osmanabad.
The only seat that it won was Raigad from where state NCP president and sitting MP Sunil Tatkare defeated Anant Geete of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).
In Baramati, sitting MP Supriya Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), won for the fourth time defeating Sunetra Pawar, Ajit Pawar's wife.
In Osmanabad, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s sitting MP Omprakash Raje Nimbalkar defeated NCP’s Archana Patil, the daughter-in-law of veteran politician Dr Padamsinh Patil. Archana Patil is wife of BJP MLA Rana Jagjitsinh Patil. OmRaje and Rana Jagjitsinh are cousins. Sunetra Pawar is step-sister of Dr Padamsinh Patil.
In Shirur, NCP (SP)’s sitting MP Dr Amol Kolhe defeated Shivajiao Adhalrao Patil. Incidentally, in 2019, Dr Kolhe of undivided NCP defeated Adhalrao Patil of undivided Shiv Sena. Since the latter was keen to contest, at the request of chief minister Eknath Shinde, he had to be accommodated in the NCP.
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