Week after Ajit Pawar’s death, uncle Sharad Pawar signals thaw in family

Baramati: Days after his “roadblock” comment cast a shadow on the possible merger between the two NCP factions, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday presented his soft side as a family patriarch, saying the current priority is to support each other before taking further decisions.

Pawar held a closed-door meeting with the sons of the late Ajit Pawar and later visited the home of Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar in Baramati to pay tribute to her husband, exactly a week after he was killed in a plane crash. The veteran politician also hit back at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for suggesting that late Ajit Pawar had not initiated merger talks with NCP (SP).

“Fadnavis was not part of merger discussions between the two Nationalist Congress Party factions and therefore had no right to comment on them,” he told reporters in Baramati.

Pawar said he skipped the Union Budget as he was busy tackling various issues concerning the party and the family.

Amid contrasting claims over a possible merger between the two NCP factions following the death of Ajit Pawar, the intense political debate over the ‘internal discussion’ is turning into a fresh flashpoint between Fadnavis and Sharad Pawar.

Hours before Ajit Pawar’s wife, Sunetra Pawar, was sworn in as the Deputy CM on January 31, Sharad Pawar had said the (merger) talks appeared to have hit a roadblock. The veteran politician had said he was not aware of the oath-taking ceremony. When asked if the merger will take place now, Sharad Pawar on Wednesday evaded a direct reply, saying that currently their priority is to support each other and then decide how to go ahead.

“As far as political discussions are concerned, we are not talking to anyone,” he told reporters in Baramati.

To a question on the appointment of Sunetra as deputy CM after her husband’s sudden death, the senior Pawar said it is a matter of happiness and satisfaction that she got the opportunity.

Earlier in the day, a closed-door meeting was held between Sharad Pawar and sons of the late Ajit Pawar, Parth and Jay, on the premises of Vidya Pratishtan, an educational institute, in Baramati. It lasted about one and a half hours, said sources. There was no immediate official word on the agenda of the meeting. The discussions might have centred on the possible merger of the two NCP factions and the upcoming Zila Parishad elections, the sources said. The patriarch later visited Sunetra Pawar’s home to pay tribute to the late Ajit Pawar.

The Pawar senior visited Sahyog Society in the town where a condolence meeting had been scheduled.

He reiterated that Ajit Pawar and NCP (SP) leader Jayant Patil had been leading the

merger talks.

The NCP leadership issue appears unsettled even a week after Ajit Pawar’s tragic death.

A day after senior leader Praful Patel ruled himself out of the race of NCP’s national president, party MLA Pratap Chikhalikar said Sunetra Pawar should become the party chief.

“We all have requested that she lead the NCP,” he said.

The Opposition has been targeting Patel, accusing him of harbouring the ambition of heading the NCP after Ajit Pawar’s death. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday accused NCP working president Praful Patel of being closer to the BJP than his

own party and said he must do whatever is acceptable only to Maharashtra and the Marathi manoos.With agency inputs