Sharad Pawar, the founding president of the Nationalist Congress Party, said that he “slipped” and failed to foresee the crisis developing in the party on Saturday, one week after the dramatic vertical split inside the party.
“I estimated wrong… I was unaware of the changes happening inside the party. In an impassioned appeal to the crowd, Pawar stated, “I am not pointing fingers at anyone (for the divide) and I assume the complete responsibility for it, when speaking at a rally in Yeola town.
He proclaimed that he had not gone to Nashik to condemn anybody but rather to ask the district’s residents, who had always been his supporters, for forgiveness for the way the NCP had divided behind his back while he was kept in the dark.
Sharad Pawar began his state-wide campaign journey from Yeola, the stronghold of his erstwhile ally Chhagan Bhujbal, who also left the NCP, a week after the NCP split apart with Ajit Pawar and others joining the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition.
Sharad Pawar, 83, reacted angrily during his rally today in response to statements made last Wednesday by his 64-year-old uncle Ajit Pawar that effectively reduced him to the position of “marg-darshak.”
Pawar cautioned against making comments about his age, saying that they will suffer dearly for doing so.
He had earlier said, “I am neither tired, nor retired, but full of fire,” implying that the NCP’s supremo was returning to battle to rescue or salvage the party, which is what he is skilled at doing.
Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule, MP, General Secretary and MLA Dr. Jitendra Awhad, Dr. Amol Kolhe, actor-turned-MP, grand-nephew and MLA Rohit Pawar, and other senior leaders received a thunderous welcome from thousands of people and party workers lining up the roads as well as in Nashik, Yeola, and other places they visited after the large rally.
The thronging masses obstructed the visiting leaders’ cars, and Sharad Pawar and Sule were almost swamped by workers and fans who handed them flowers or garlands, sought to shake their hands or touch them, and gave the police and security staff a difficult time.
