The founder of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar, suggested that he might not be enthusiastic about welcoming back the NCP leaders who had rebelled. He emphasized the importance of supporting new faces within the party instead.
He was addressing a gathering at Mumbai's Y B Chavan Centre. The NCP suffered a huge jolt in July after its key figure and Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and eight senior leaders joined the ruling dispensation of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the BJP by taking oath as ministers.
Some people ask me what is to be done if those who have joined the government try to come back. We are not going to take any decision about it. There is a view within the party that those who are new and fresh should be given support ahead of elections, said the NCP president.
The faction of the NCP led by Sharad Pawar conveyed to the Election Commission on Saturday that there is no internal dispute within the party, except for a few individuals who have left the organization driven by personal ambitions, referring to the rebel group. Pawar also made a sarcastic remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alluding to Modi's previous allegations against the NCP.
Modi had accused the NCP of being a corrupt party. However, after making those allegations, he included certain individuals from the NCP in the state government, the same individuals he had criticized. This highlights the consistency of Modi's principles, stated the NCP president.
Speaking at a BJP programme in Bhopal a few weeks before Ajit Pawar's rebellion, Modi had accused the NCP of being involved in corruption of Rs 70,000 crore, listing out alleged scams in the Maharashtra Cooperative Bank as well as in the state's irrigation and mining sectors.