"I was sidelined a lot of times": Ajit Pawar escalates feud with uncle Sharad Pawar

At the first big meeting of the party leaders after joining the NDA, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday made it clear that he wants to become the chief minister to implement certain plans he has for people's welfare. He, however, did not elaborate on any timeline. Pawar, who joined the politics in 1982, has served as the deputy chief minister five times. 

Speaking at the meeting of his faction of NCP leaders in Mumbai, Ajit Pawar said:Amhi konacha poti janmala alo, gyat kay chuk ahe amchi? (How is it our fault that we were born in someone else’s womb?).”On Wednesday, the junior Pawar did not hold back. He slammed his uncle for refusing to retire and make space for him in politics, for holding talks with the BJP and then making U-turns, and for surrounding himself with leaders who did no work to expand the party. 

He, however, insisted that he still considered Sharad Pawar his deity and place of worship, and urged the octogenarian to reconsider his decision to oppose the extension of support to the BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena.“I took a backseat a lot of times, I was sidelined a lot of times. I tackled all the googlies thrown at me. I am a karyakarta (worker). If something is possible, I say yes immediately. I don’t like to make my karyakartas suffer for no reason,” Ajit Pawar said at the meeting. Appealing to his uncle to reconsider, he said that the NCP founder has surrounded himself with some leaders because of whom the party is suffering — being seen as a veiled reference to NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad.