Mumbai: A day after his bombshell resignation, former two-time Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar arrived in Mumbai to meet his uncle and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar at the latter’s home on Saturday afternoon.
This is the first meeting between them after Ajit Pawar abruptly resigned as Baramati MLA on Friday evening, stunning party and state political circles.
Sharad Pawar, on late Friday night, said Ajit’s family informed that he was “disturbed” over the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case in the alleged Rs 25,000-crore scam in Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank Ltd. (MSCB) and decided to quit.
He also indicated that Ajit Pawar was contemplating quitting politics altogether even as the state prepares for elections on October 21 with the NCP posing a formidable challenge along with the Congress and other allies to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine.
In a party meeting, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray declined to comment on the issue saying: “I am not interested in anybody’s family squabbles.”
In a surprise move, Ajit Pawar went and submitted his resignation to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade who accepted it, barely six weeks before the term of the present assembly is due to expire.
While Sharad Pawar drove down from Pune, Ajit reportedly came from Ahmednagar and the entire family, including Supriya Sule, MP (Pawar Sr.’s daughter) and other close relatives, were huddled in a private meeting.
Some senior party leaders like Leader of Opposition in Council Dhananjay Munde and National Spokesperson Jitendra Awhad were outside Pawar’s residence, but there was no word on the discussions going on inside.
There was fresh speculation that Sharad Pawar might prevail upon Ajit to reconsider his move and plunge afresh into the election campaigning which he was doing till Thursday.