NCP leaders to decide on Ajit's desire for party role: Sharad

Pune: Days after Ajit Pawar appealed that he be assigned a role in the NCP organisation, party president Sharad Pawar on Monday said such a decision cannot be taken by one person and key party leaders will sit to take a call on it. Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who is the nephew of Sharad Pawar, recently appealed to the party leadership to relieve him of the responsibility as Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and assign him any role in the party organisation.

Notably, Sharad Pawar recently entrusted the responsibility of Maharashtra to his daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule by appointing her as a working president. Praful Patel is another working president for other states.

Asked about Ajit Pawar's desire to have a position in the party organisation, the NCP chief said such decisions are not taken by any one person.

"Key leaders including him (Ajit) will sit together and they will take a decision on this. Today, everyone in the party has the sentiment to work in the party organisation and he (Ajit) reflected upon the same sentiment," he said.

On criticism from opponents that the NCP uses Other Backward Classes for namesake but does not give any party position to OBC leaders, Sharad Pawar said such comments show there is lack of knowledge over this point.

"The first state NCP chief was Chhagan Bhujbal. Who is he? After him, (Madhukarrao) Pichad was on that position. After him, Sunil Tatkare, who was he? See the list," he said.

They (BJP leaders) also know that the question raised by them is not in sync with the facts, he added. Bhujbal recently batted for an OBC state unit chief of the party and also threw his hat in the ring. He was the first president of the state NCP when it was formed in 1999.

Bhujbal said current NCP Maharashtra unit chief Jayant Patil had been on the post for five years, adding BJP's state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Congress state unit chief Nana Patole were OBCs.

It is a norm that if the state unit president is from one dominant community, the LoP has to be from a smaller community in order to give representation to all sections of society, Bhujbal said. (PTI)