MUMBAI: A war of words has escalated between NCP factions in the state after minister Dilip Walse Patil who belongs to the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar-led group said, “Sharad Pawar is a tall leader but he could not single-handedly bring his party to power in Maharashtra like other regional party leaders in West Bengal and Delhi.”
Addressing party workers at Manchar in his Assembly constituency Ambegaon on Sunday, Walse Patil said that the people of Maharashtra never gave Sharad Pawar power on his own or allowed him to single-handedly form the government.
Walse Patil later sought to clarify that he neither criticised nor spoke wrongly about Sharad Pawar. He said Sharad Pawar will be his leader even in the future and respect for the 82-year-old veteran will remain forever in his mind.
"I feel the media has gotten it wrong. I never spoke ill about Pawar saheb. I was expressing regret that while other regional parties achieved power on their own, the people of Maharashtra did not give it to him. There is no question of demeaning Pawar saheb or questioning his ability," said Walse Patil on X (formerly Twitter). He added that this was not the first time that he has expressed his disappointment over the people of the state not standing in full strength with Sharad Pawar.
A tweet on Ajit Pawar faction’s official handle said that Walse Patil has expressed his regrets but remains firm on his statement about senior Pawar. The handle also posted the video of the speech Ajit gave at his faction’s first meeting in Bandra where Ajit is seen almost repeating Walse Patil’s remark.
Meanwhile, NCP leader Jitendra Awhad reacting to Walse Patil’s statement said there was a larger conspiracy at the national level against Sharad Pawar to reduce his political importance.
He alleged that Walse Patil made this statement against Sharad in that context only. “Walse Patil became MLA and then was a minister for several years and enjoyed the fruits of power. Now, he is criticising Sharad Pawar. Ajit-led NCP is trying to snatch the NCP that was founded and expanded by Sharad Pawar,” Awhad alleged.
NCP MLA and Pawar's grandnephew Rohit Pawar said it was people like Walse-Patil who were around Sharad Pawar during most of his political career. "Had these people worked harder, Pawar saheb would have gained power single-handedly," Rohit Pawar said.
Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress to form the Nationalist Congress Party on June 10, 1999. It earned national status in 2000 but lost it in 2023. The party has never been able to form a government on its own.
A few months back, a crisis was triggered in the NCP when Ajit Pawar (then Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly) joined hands with the Eknath Shinde-BJP government and took oath as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, a few months back. Eight other NCP MLAs took oath as ministers with Ajit Pawar.
On that, Walse Patil said, “There is Mamata Banerjee, there is Mayawati. There are many regional parties which are going forward and despite having a tall leader were only getting 60-70 seats in the Assembly. And hence we took the decision (to form an alliance with the BJP)…"
"We have not joined BJP, NCP is our own party, we are in NCP only. The Election Commission will decide who will get the name and symbol of the party, after that, there can be a stir in the politics of the state," he added.
He further said, “We had talked to Sharad Pawar twice before taking the decision to join the government, but when no response came from there, we had to take this step,”
(With additional inputs from online desk)