Blames the media for twisting facts; says other senior leaders also could not speak due to time constraints
@the_news_21
Mumbai: After having set political rumour mills in an overdrive by not speaking and then walking out at the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) national convention in New Delhi, senior NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday refuted suggestions that he had deliberately skipped speaking because he was ‘upset’ with the party
On Sunday, Ajit Pawar was seen abruptly exiting the dais in front of his uncle and party president Sharad Pawar and other senior NCP leaders when NCP State President Jayant Patil got up to speak.
This prompted Ajit Pawar’s supporters in the convention to raise slogans demanding that ‘Dada’ (as Ajit Pawar is popularly known) be ‘allowed’ to speak. Given alleged tensions between Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil, the former’s apparent walking out sparked rumours of a rift within the NCP.
However, speaking to reporters in Mumbai here on Monday, Ajit Pawar remarked that the media was attempting to read too much into the incident and was blowing things out of proportion without ascertaining the facts.
The senior NCP leader further remarked, “It was our party’s national conference. Our state president Jayant Patil presented Maharashtra’s position in the conference. There were other leaders who were waiting to speak. Given time constraints, even senior leaders like Sunil Tatkare and Vandana Chavan could not have their say. And as everybody wanted to hear our national president Sharad Pawar saaheb, it was decided that he would speak. I went to the washroom and it was presented in the media as if I was unhappy.”
Ajit Pawar further stated that no one had stopped him from speaking and clarified that he had gone to the washroom for a few minutes. “Can’t I even go to the washroom? I am not upset. Do I have to give that undertaking on stamp paper?” he quipped. By the time he had returned to his place party president Sharad Pawar was making his closing remarks.
Known as an efficient administrator and tough taskmaster, Ajit Pawar has also been the ‘stormy petrel’ of the NCP. His past actions of trying to demonstrate his influence within the party has often required all of Sharad Pawar’s iron will to rein in his recalcitrant nephew.
In 2012, Ajit Pawar had plunged the Maharashtra government (Congress-NCP led Democratic Front coalition) in turmoil after he dramatically resigned. As many as 20 NCP ministers had submitted their resignations to then Congress chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.
His resignation had come after allegations of irregularities in his granting of project approvals totalling Rs. 20,000 crores when he was State Water Resources Minister.
However, barely three months after he resigned, Ajit Pawar was ‘reinstated’ as Deputy Chief Minister in late 2012 after a government White Paper on irrigation projects gave him a ‘clean chit’.
In 2019, soon after the Maharashtra Assembly elections were held, Ajit Pawar had startled the State with his intra-party ‘rebellion’ when he staged a coup on the morning of November 23 and was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, with Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Devendra Fadnavis taking oath as chief minister.
Sharad Pawar’s heavy hand had prevailed and the party failed to split despite his nephew’s (Ajit Pawar) temporary defection, the latter had resigned as deputy chief minister in less than 80 hours.
However, Ajit Pawar was sworn-in again as the deputy chief minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition (comprising of the Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress) which came into being in 2019, until being toppled by rebel Sena leader and current CM Eknath Shinde in a recent coup.