Amid speculation that he was miffed at being ignored for the number two position in the government, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and party leader Praful Patel skipped a cabinet meeting here Thursday – the first time that the party has done so in eight years.
Agriculture Minister Pawar as well as Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel did not attend the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
However, the NCP ministers attended a party meeting instead.
Patel downplayed their absence from the cabinet meeting, telling reporters that there was nothing to read in it.
NCP spokesperson D.P. Tripathi told reporters that the party had skipped a cabinet meeting for the “first time in the last eight years”. He also added that the NCP had “problems in how they were treated”.