Maharashtra 'Pawar' game: Rebel leader Ajit advises uncle Sharad, 83, to retire, asks 'Till when?'

AJIT Pawar, the newly appointed deputy chief minister of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, on Wednesday (5) took repeated swipes at his uncle and party supremo Sharad Pawar, suggesting that it was time for him to make way for young blood.

The 63-year-old Ajit also staked claim to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which got split after he joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government along with eight other state lawmakers, by announcing that he would take the party's name and symbol claiming he has the backing of most the party's legislators.

Mocking Sharad Pawar, 83, Ajit said, “You are now 83, you went to Yashwantrao dada’s memorial that day. Are you going to stop someday or not? Give us blessings, we need it. You are our hero. I told Supriya Sule also to convince Pawar saheb but she told me he is stubborn. He won’t listen. Till when?” a report by The Indian Express reported.

“All the MLAs are in touch with me. Even those MLAs who are in another meeting (with Sharad Pawar),” he said at a meeting held in Bandra in Mumbai where 29 NCP legisl;ators showed up.

Pawar also said that the senior Pawar had himself initiated talks to join hands with the BJP of prime minister Narendra Modi on a number of occasions before backing out.

He said prior to the 2014 general elections, a proposal was floated for the NCP, Sena and BJP to contest elections together with each party contesting in 16 seats (Maharashtra sends 48 legislators to the Lok Sabha or lower chamber of the parliament). Ajit added the BJP later backed out of the plan due to accusations against some leaders.

He said another attempt to go with the BJP was made in 2017 but the saffron party was not willing to leave the Sena on that occasion. The plan did not go forward, he said, adding that NCP leaders said they would not go with the Sena which they called communal. He also said that in 2019, the same party was asked to join hands with the Sena and asked what had changed by then.

The former Maha Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) government of Maharashtra had the Sena, NCP and Congress in its ranks. The coalition collapsed last year after a dissent by current chief minister Eknath Shinde and his followers saw the Sena imploding, reducing the faction led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray in a minority.

Supriya Sule, the NCP's national working president and parliamentarian and the daughter of Sharad Pawar, slammed Ajit indirectly at a meeting held by the patriarch. She questioned why senior people should stop working and cited the examples of industrialist Ratan Tata, actor Amitabh Bachchan, politician Farooq Abdullah and US entrepreneur Warren Buffet, all of whom are in their 80s.