Sharad Pawar's surprising announcement in May, in which he declared his intention to step down as the head of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was the fallout of the insistence by some leaders of the outfit to go with the BJP, said NCP working president and MP Supriya Sule on Thursday.
Pawar saheb never wanted to tender his resignation, she said. Sule was responding to questions about claims by Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who is with the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, that it had been decided in the party that he would resign.
Sharad Pawar was not ready to go with the BJP. It was decided that he would resign and Sule be made the party president so that NCP could tie up with the BJP and become a part of the government, said Bhujbal in an interview with a Marathi news channel that was telecast on Wednesday.
Sule said her father never wanted to tender his resignation as the NCP chief. But when everyone in the party insisted on joining hands with the BJP, Pawar Saheb was hurt. He tendered his resignation. You (media) thought it was a drama, but for us it was reality. Later, party workers from the state urged Pawar Saheb to continue as president, she said. Would you call him a ‘tanashah’ (dictator) if he himself instructed the setting up of a committee to look for the next (NCP) president. (Had been a tanashah) he would have ordered that this particular person be made the party president, she said.
Sharad Pawar had no prior knowledge about the swearing-in of Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP leaders on July 2, she said. The decision (to join the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government) was taken by keeping him (Sharad Pawar) in the dark, she claimed.
In a surprising turn of events, Sharad Pawar announced on May 2 that he would be stepping down as the leader of the NCP, the political party he had founded and led since 1999. However, he later reversed this decision in response to protests and mass resignations by astonished party members.