“Jayant Patil rightly said to Pawar that ‘you are the party’. The NCP today is standing in the name of Sharad Pawar,” the editorial said.
Two days after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar resigned from the party as its president, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) claimed that the senior leader came prepared beforehand and quit at a time when his party is splitting.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamana, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) faction claimed the leader was well prepared with the speech to announce his exit, and that it was thought through. It further added that after Pawar’s announcement, the NCP leaders were stirred, but “many of them already have one foot in the BJP ship”.
“Jayant Patil rightly said to Pawar that ‘you are the party’. The NCP today is standing in the name of Sharad Pawar,” the editorial said.
The editorial added that Pawar’s decision to step down won’t dent the unity of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Acknowledging Pawar’s contribution to national and state politics and social work, the Saamana editorial noted that Pawar’s decision was actually a masterstroke as he turned the table by dropping the bomb. “Pawar exposed what was going on inside the party. Pawar is the hero of all that happened. Pawar is Bhishma of Indian politics, but he showed that unlike Bhishma he will not lie down, but will steer,” the editorial said.
Pawar’s sudden resignation from the post of NCP chief shocked many in the political arena. Pawar (82) announced his decision during the launch of his revised autobiography ‘Lok Majhe Sangati’. He also set up a party committee to decide on his successor.
After resigning, Pawar, who founded and helmed the NCP since 1999, said he won’t be retiring from public life.
Pawar has set up a panel, which includes his daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar, to look into the succession within the party. The panel will pronounce its decision tomorrow (May 5). The committee members will meet at 11 am in NCP’s south Mumbai office to decide who will succeed Pawar for the top post, a senior NCP leader said.
Pawar’s autobiography
In his revised autobiography ‘Lok Majhe Sangati’, Pawar claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wanted to stitch a post-poll alliance with the NCP in 2019, but he made it clear to PM Narendra Modi that there can be no truck with the saffron party.
Pawar also wrote that there some BJP and NCP leaders had informal talks after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly Elections when there was uncertainty over government formation.
“The BJP started exploring whether there could be any possibility of an alliance with the NCP, but I was not involved in the process. This was only BJP’s desire and there were no formal talks with the BJP. But there were informal talks between select leaders from the two parties,” Pawar wrote in his autobiography.
In his book, Pawar has also accused former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray of failing to resolve the discontent in his party and stepping down as CM without a fight.