Maharashtra’s Second Deputy Chief Minister and rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Friday once again reiterated his claim for the party’s name and symbol before the Election Commission of India (ECI). (File Images: PTI)
The NCP founder also referred to the age of veteran Prime Minister Morarji Desai in response to Ajit’s remark that he suggested that his uncle should retire at the age of 83.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday rejected his nephew Ajit Pawar’s suggestion that he should retire from active politics and cited the words of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who said:neither tired nor retired(I am neither tired nor retired).
The NCP founder also referred to the age of veteran Prime Minister Morarji Desai in his response to Ajit’s remark that his uncle should retire at the age of 83. “Do you know at what age Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister? I don’t want to become prime minister or minister, but only want to serve the people.
He insisted, “Neither tired nor retired.”
Responding to another question on the succession war in the family after Ajit Pawar’s remark that he was sidelined because he was nobody’s (Sharad Pawar’s) son, the veteran politician said, “I don’t know much on this subject. Want to say I don’t like discussing family issues outside the family.”
Pawar highlighted that Ajit Pawar was appointed as a minister and even served as deputy chief minister. However, his daughter Supriya Sule was not given any ministerial berth despite the possibility. “Whenever the NCP got a ministerial berth at the Centre, it was given to others, but not to Supriya, despite being an MP,” Pawar said.
Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar had a heated exchange of words earlier this week after the new Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra asked in his speech when 82-year-old Sharad Pawar was going to stop.
Sule took strong objection to the comments and said, “One can criticize me or any other person, but I will not tolerate it against my father…He is more than a father to party workers.”
“We daughters are far better than sons who ask their fathers to sit at home,” she said.
A week after Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led cabinet in Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar is starting his statewide tour by holding a rally at Yeola, located in Nashik district. Yeola is the constituency of rebel party leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal. Pawar’s decision to start his party’s rebuilding efforts in Yeola, a small town located 250 km north of Mumbai, is understood as an attempt by the veteran leader to rejuvenate the party.
(With inputs from PTI)