‘No talks yet on new NCP chief’
Mumbai: Senior NCP leader Praful Patel on Wednesday said there was no question of picking Sharad Pawar’s successor as party chief until there was a final decision on his announcement to quit the post.
Pawar has not relented despite repeated appeals from Nationalist Congress Party leaders and supporters that he withdraw his decision to step down, Patel told reporters here.
“Pawar yesterday said there should be a generational change. May be he wanted a new generation to step forward. None of us knew about it beforehand. He has asked for some time and we should grant him that,” Patel said.
NCP MLA from Thane Jitendra Awhad said he had resigned as the party’s national general secretary following Pawar’s announcement that he was stepping down as the party supremo.
Earlier in the day, there was also speculation about Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule emerging as the choice for national president and his nephew Ajit Pawar as Maharashtra unit chief.
Some reports also suggested that Praful Patel, who is the NCP’s national vice-president, could be the new party chief, but he ruled out the possibility.
The party committee, which Pawar himself set up on Tuesday to decide on his successor, did not meet on Wednesday, he said. He also denied that Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil was upset with the party and he was not invited to the meeting of top leaders.
When asked by reporters in Pune, Patil said he had a word with Supriya Sule who said there was no such meeting. “If the situation arises, the committee will decide on Pawar’s successor and the decision will be unanimous,” Praful Patel said in Mumbai.
“He sought time to think over his decision after the party asked him to reconsider it, and till the final decision is arrived at, there is no question of deliberating on his successor,” Patel said.
“There is no vacancy,” he said, adding, “whether Pawar remains president or not, he is the party’s identity and soul.”
The party was trying to persuade Pawar to reconsider his decision, Patel said, adding that workers should have patience and stop resigning from their posts en masse in protest against Pawar’s decision.
The `Vajramooth’ rallies of the Maha Vikas Aghadi – the alliance of the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) – were postponed due to the hot summer conditions and it was decided on Sunday when a rally was held in Mumbai, Patel said.
“It has nothing to do with Pawar stepping down as NCP chief,” he said.
Awhad, a former state cabinet minister, said he and all office-bearers of Thane NCP have resigned after Pawar’s announcement.