MUMBAI: After the Patil and Patel jibe by Raj Thackeray, NCP’s working president Praful Patel withdrew from the race for NCP’s next president, paving the way for Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.
Following the demise of Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel was eyeing the Maharashtra Dy CM position if Sunetra Pawar refused to take up the responsibility.
MNS chief Raj Thackeray, taking a potshot, said that NCP is a Marathi and rural peoples' party and its president should be Patil, not the Patel (Praful), invoking the Marathi and Gujarati controversy.
Union minister Piyush Goel, in his interview, also said that the NCP has appointed Praful Patel as its national president even though no such decision was taken in the NCP.
Later, Goel extended an apology in a social media post for sharing wrong information that was wrongly briefed by one of the senior journalists.
Praful Patel said that he is happy as the working president of NCP, and he is not in the race for the national president of NCP. He also questioned Raj Thackeray for poking his nose into his party affair.
“Our leaders and MLAs will decide who they want to elect as their next national president in place of Ajit Pawar. Who is Raj Thackeray to dictate terms in our party? We follow the democratic process, and the next president will be chosen soon,” Patel add withdrawing his candidature from the top post race.
NCP MLAs demanded that in place of Ajit Pawar, his spouse Sunetra Pawar should be appointed as NCP national president. “We will not accept anyone other than Sunetra Pawar as NCP national president. And no one should try for it. We are very much Ajit Pawar's family after his demise,” said a senior NCP minister, who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, Sunetra Pawar was given the responsibility as the guardian minister of Pune and Beed. Earlier, her husband, Ajit Pawar, was the guardian minister of both these districts.