After visiting his uncle and NCP President Sharad Pawar’s home in Mumbai, the leader of the split Nationalist Congress Party, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, said, “Family is priority.”
When Ajit Pawar learned that his aunt Pratibha Sharad Pawar had undergone hand surgery at a private hospital late on Friday, he hurried to Pawar Sr.’s house in Silver Oaks.
“Politics is different… Always put your family first. I went to check on my aunt’s health after feeling compelled by my conscience’, said Ajit Pawar on Saturday.
This was his first visit to Sharad Pawar 15 days after he left the NCP and became a second deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party administration, which attracted a lot of attention in the political world.
Although he did not go into more detail, he claimed to have seen his cousin and uncle, Supriya Sule, an MP from Baramati, in a very friendly setting.
All political speculations were put to rest when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said late on Friday night that Ajit Pawar had visited his family.
Recall that Pratibha Pawar had surgery, and an NCP leader said that she was in “stable” condition thereafter.
Pratibha, who is referred to as “Kaki” (Aunt) by party officials and workers, is the late Indian test cricketer Sadashiv Shinde’s daughter and was wed to Sharad Pawar in 1967.
Though she periodically came out to stand by him, as she did in May when her husband resigned as the NCP President, she has always kept in the background.
According to Pawar, she was able to wean back their nephew Ajit Pawar when he unexpectedly allied with Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party to assume office as chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively, in November 2019. However, the two men’s administration was overthrown in only 80 hours.
