A day after NCP chief Ajit Pawar met his uncle Sharad Pawar to wish him on his 84th birthday, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar’s mother Sunanda Pawar on Friday said the two factions should come together.
In response, the NCP said the Sharad Pawar group is welcome to join hands with them if they are ready to accept Ajit Pawar’s leadership.
Speaking to reporters in Pune, Sunanda Pawar said, “Every year, we all meet Sharad Pawar… As a family, we all have to come together”.
“I can’t say that Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar will come together. Every family has differences. In future, they may come together. I think they should come together. If we are united, it will increase our strength, if we are divided, the strength will increase. Both of them have to decide who to go with,’ she said.
When asked whether The senior Pawar should also join hands with the ruling partiesSunanda Pawar said, ‘Sharad Pawar has been in politics for 60 years. What he should and shouldn’t do is his call. I’m not one to give him advice.”
Sunanda Pawar was married to Sharad Pawar’s elder brother Rajendra Pawar, son of Dinkarrao Pawar.
NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said that he ‘welcomes’ Sunanda Pawar’s statement.
“Ajit Pawar also made a similar appeal in a rally he addressed at Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai… Today NCP is growing rapidly under the leadership of Ajit Pawar. We have 41 MLAs, one Lok Sabha MP and two Rajya Sabha members. If the Sharad Pawar group wants to join hands with us, we will welcome them. But they will have to accept Ajit Pawar’s leadership sincerely… Party workers also feel that the two NCPs should come together,” Mitkari said.
However, after Ajit Pawar met Sharad Pawar at his Delhi residence on Thursday, their first meeting in over a year, NCP (SP) leaders dismissed any speculation of a possible reunion.
Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar broke away from the main Nationalist Congress party in July 2023 to form a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra. The family members then contested the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and 2024 against each other. Maharashtra assembly elections were recently concluded.
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