When the INDIA alliance attends its summit in Mumbai later this month, Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole has said that his party’s top brass would discuss with NCP founder Sharad Pawar his hotly contested meeting with his politically estranged nephew and state deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Speaking to reporters during a core committee meeting of the state Congress, Patole said on Wednesday that while there is public uncertainty over senior Pawar, a member of the anti-BJP coalition, his party has no such doubt.
Two representatives of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, according to Patole, attended the MPCC core committee meeting where preparations for the INDIA alliance conference, an assembly of anti-BJP parties, which will take place in Mumbai on August 31 and September 1, were discussed.
“Sharad Pawar belongs to an alternative party. There is no misunderstanding inside the Congress on Pawar Sahab’s (commitment to the INDIA alliance),” he remarked.
In the event that the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) joins forces with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Patole denied rumors that there was a “Plan “B”” in place wherein the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress will run together in the Lok Sabha elections.
He said that the Congress wants to hire persons who would assist in defeating the BJP since that is its ultimate purpose.
“Sharad Pawar has the ability to make choices. When questioned about the private conversation between the uncle and nephew in Pune last week, Patole stated, “Our high command would address this (meeting with Ajit) with Sharad Pawar at the INDIA alliance conference since he is a senior leader.
Political circles were buzzing with rumors after the meeting between the NCP patriarch and party renegade Ajit Pawar on August 12 at billionaire Atul Chordiya’s home in Pune. The Congress and the Shiv Sena faction, commanded by the former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, did not like it.
The Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are also members of the state opposition coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which also includes the Sharad Pawar-led wing of the NCP.
The older Pawar emphasized his discussion with Ajit Pawar was due to a family problem and that there was no political component to it when he spoke to media in Aurangabad earlier in the day. The former Union minister also said that he will not support the BJP.
According to the state Congress leader, Sharad Pawar and Kharge also discussed the matter, and the NCP founder emphasized that the meeting was only a family gathering.
Patole said that talks on the party’s padayatra, which would begin on September 3 and be headed by top state Congress officials, also took place at the core committee meeting.
He said that reports had been received from the observers who had been assigned to each of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha constituencies, and that they were now trying to fill up any gaps.
