The Nationalist Congress Party was stunned on Tuesday by the shock resignation of patriarch Sharad Pawar from the post of president, a post he has held since the NCP’s inception in 1999.

Pawar has not indicated who will succeed him as president but party workers are trying to persuade him to take back the resignation. Making the announcement at the launch of his autobiography with nephew Ajit Pawar next to him at the Yashwantrao Chavan Hall, the 82-year-old said he has decided to hang up his party leadership boots.

Reports said the next NCP president will be elected by its apex committee. Pawar had been the founder president of the NCP in 1999 when he along with PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar split away from the Congress over Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin after she became the AICC president.

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The NCP is in alliance with the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the Maha Vikas Aghadi which ruled Maharashtra until Thackeray was unseated by Sena rebel Eknath Shinde in mid-2022. Ajit Pawar was deputy chief minister in the arrangement but has been making his chief ministerial ambitions public after playing a supporting role to his uncle for so long.

Ajit Pawar’s comment on becoming CM had brought to full circle the turmoil in the NCP and his overtures to the BJP had grown urgent.

During the recent emerging differences in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Sharad Pawar made it very clear that there is no division in the alliance. His resignation seems to be an effort to iron out the difference.

Sharad Pawar began his political innings in 1956 as a student in the struggle for the liberation of Goa. He was close to his mentor Yashwantrao Chavan and over time became a confidant of Indira Gandhi.

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The Congress on Sunday questioned Narendra Modi’s silence over current burning issues like the Adani row and the ongoing wrestlers’ protest at the Prime Minister’s monthly radio show ‘Mann Ki Baat’ marked its 100^th episode today.

In a snide jibe at PM Modi, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that even though the 100^th episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is being heralded with great fanfare today, but on critical issues like China, Adani, increasing economic inequalities, price rise of essential commodities, terror attacks in J&K, insults to women wrestlers, etc, its “Maun Ki Baat” (silence) from the Prime Minister’s side.

In a tweet ahead of the radio program’s airing, Ramesh said in a tweet: “Today is FekuMaster Special. The 100th day of Mann ki Baat is being heralded with great fanfare. But it is Maun ki Baat on crucial issues like China, Adani, increasing economic inequalities, price rise of essential commodities, terror attacks in J&K, insults to women wrestlers, non-fulfilment of promises made to farmer organisations, corruption in so-called double-engine state governments like Karnataka, conmen with close links to BJP, etc.”

The senior Congress leader claimed that IIM Rohtak did a “doctored” study on PM Modi’s “Mann Ki Baat” and its impact on society, while the academic credentials of the institution’s own Director have been under the scanner and questioned by the Union Ministry of Education itself.

The Congress on its official Twitter handle reiterated Ramesh’s jibe at PM Modi, claiming that he has remained silent on issues such as Chinese aggression, unemployment, price rise, charges against industrialist Gautam Adani’s business conglomerate and women’s security.

PM Modi’s “Mann Ki Baat”, which has become a shining example of social connect between the Prime Minister and the masses since its inception, today marked its 100^th episode which was also broadcasted live at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Speaking on the historic episode of the radio programme, PM Modi said that ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ of crores of Indians and is an expression of their feelings, adding that the monthly broadcast has ensured he remains in touch with the people of the country.

Terming the radio programme a “spiritual journey” through which he found a solution to connect with the citizens, PM Modi said that ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has become a festival celebrating the country’s people and their positivity.

Upcoming Bollywood film, ‘The Kerala Story’ is a “deliberately produced” piece of Sangh Parivar propaganda aimed to create communal divide and spread hatred among Hindus and Muslims in the state, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleged on Sunday.

Hitting out at the makers of the controversial movie, CM Vijayan claimed that the people who made the film have taken up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting Kerala as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of ‘love jihad’, which he said, is a concept that has been rejected by everyone, including the courts, all central probe agencies and even the Union Home Ministry itself.

The chief minister alleged that the trailer of ‘The Kerala Story’, at first glance, appears to be a “deliberately produced” piece of Sangh Parivar-backed hate propaganda against the state aimed at triggering a communal divide and spreading hatred in Kerala.

Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that the issue of so-called ‘love jihad’—a concept rejected by the courts, probe agencies and even the Home Ministry—was being raised in the “propaganda” film in connection to Kerala in a bid to humiliate the state in front of the world.

In a statement, CM Vijayan said that such “propaganda films” and the alienation of Muslims depicted in them must be viewed the context of Sangh Parivar’s efforts to gain political advantage in Kerala which is “sowing the poisonous seeds of communalism” in the state in order to expand their political clout ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

‘The Kerala Story’—an upcoming Bollywood Hindi film which claims to based on true events and highlights the “plight of Hindu women” who were allegedly “forced” to converted to Islam by their lovers—has invited widespread condemnation from both the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala and the opposition Congress.

Both parties have termed the film as piece of “hate propaganda”, allegedly peddled by right-wing Hindu outfits like the RSS and backed by the BJP in an attempt to flare communal tensions in Kerala.