Setting at rest intense speculation about the merger of the two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday vehemently rules out the possibility of his party hands with the party led by his nephew Ajit Pawar whom he called an “opportunist”.
Addressing a rally at Pimpri-Chinchwad near Pune, Sr Pawar said: “We do not want to join hands with opportunists who went with the BJP for power. We will along with us those who share the thoughts of Gandhi, Nehru, Phule, Shahu, Ambedkar”.
“However, if someone is going with the BJP for the sake of power, then you cannot say that they practise the ideology of the Congress. One may align with anyone but joining hands with the BJP is not in sync with the Congress ideology,” the NCP (SP) chief who played a key role in the formation of the Congress-led Opposition front INDIA bloc, said. Sr Pawar exhorted his supporters not to bother about those who left the party, but concentrate on the forthcoming local body elections.
“I have seen these kinds of developments on several occasions in my career. Please don’t worry or bother about those who deserted the party,” he said.
Responding to his uncle and NCP (SP) chief’s remarks, deputy chief minister of Sr Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar said: “Everyone has the right to present his or her view.”
The remarks by Sr Pawar and Ajit Pawar came a week after the two factions of the NCP held parallel 26th foundation day celebrations, in which the both leaders had not spoken anything about the possible merger.
Speaking at the foundation day foundation day function, Sr Pawar had said: “A split took place in our party. We never thought that such a thing would happen in the party, but it happened. Some people went with other ideologies. If some people remained loyal to the party, it is because of our party’s ideology.”
On the other hand, Ajit Pawar responded to his uncle’s statement by saying: “Couple of years ago, we had to make a decision…we are not sadhu-sant being in politics. We took the decision ( to split) to ensure that we address the issues of people.”
It was Sr. Pawar’s cryptic statement made in May this year that led to the speculation about the possible merger of the two NCP factions.
The NCP (SP) chief had said in an interview given to a newspaper: “There are two views in the party. One is that we reunite with the NCP led by Ajit Pawar. The second is that we don’t go directly or indirectly with the BJP. Let’s join the INDIA group and reorganise the alliance”.