Sharad Pawar asked party leaders to protest his resignation, says Ajit Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar stated that when Sharad Pawar declared his resignation as the party chief in May, certain leaders were instructed to orchestrate protests urging him to reconsider the decision. Addressing the party's Vichar Manthan meeting in Karjat, Raigad district, Ajit Pawar characterized the episode of resignation as a nautanki or farce.

Jitendra Awhad and Anand Paranjpe (NCP leaders) were called (by Sharad Pawar) and told to organise demonstrations asking for his resignation to be taken back, he said. Paranjpe later came to me and I asked him why you are doing this nautanki. My view was that this was not needed. I hadn’t asked for his (Sharad Pawar) resignation, Ajit Pawar said. If you didn’t like our decision (of joining the Shinde-led state government), then why did you call us for a meeting, Ajit Pawar said. Ajit Pawar also declared that his faction will contest the Baramati Lok Sabha seat.

Shortly after declaring his resignation as NCP president at an event in Mumbai on May 2, Sharad Pawar reversed the decision, citing his respect for the strong sentiments it had stirred among the party cadre and leaders nationwide. Ajit Pawar, who became a part of the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra on July 2, revealed that efforts for reconciliation had been initiated by the Sharad Pawar-led faction. He mentioned that a meeting for such a reconciliation was arranged on August 12 at the residence of businessman Atul Chordia in Pune.

Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, who represents Baramati constituency in Lok Sabha, welcomed her cousin’s announcement, saying, “I have always been of the opinion that somebody should contest against me. On former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s claim that he has been given ‘supari’ (contract) by the BJP to end the political career of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar said Deshmukh remained with the group led by Sharad Pawar as he would have been sans a ministerial berth had he switched sides.