Supriya Sule not keen to head NCP, wants to focus on 2024: Sharad Pawar

KOLHAPUR: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday said his daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule had made it clear that she was not interested in heading the party and would rather concentrate on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“Supriya said she is not ready to take up any new responsibility,” Pawar said on the sidelines of his first public engagement in Pandharpur since his May 2 announcement of resigning as NCP chief. He took back his decision three days later, following appeals from party leaders and workers.
Defending Sule’s decision, Pawar said she had been adjudged best parliamentarian seven times. However, he hinted that the Baramati MP may be tasked with the responsibility to head the party at some time in the future. Apart from Sule, names of senior party leaders like Praful Patel and Jayant Patil were doing the rounds as Pawar’s probable successor.

The Maratha strongman said leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the alliance of which NCP is part with Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, will meet soon and decide the dates of the Vajramuth rallies in Pune, Nashik and Kolhapur. In the aftermath of his resignation, the MVA had temporarily suspended these rallies.

On the issue of seat sharing among MVA partners for next year’s Lok Sabha elections, Pawar said leaders from all three parties will draw up a strategy after he returns to Mumbai on May 10. “All parties in the MVA are together. We believe that a strategy for Lok Sabha elections must be drawn up first and work on it needs to start immediately as these elections will be held first,” he added. Lok Sabha polls are due early next year, while Maharashtra will vote to elect its assembly in the second half of 2024.

Emphasising the need to vote out the ‘anti-farmer’ BJP government from the Centre, the NCP chief, in a reference to its move to ban exports of sugar and onion, said: “The central government has always taken decisions that have destroyed farmers.”
‘I would like to visit Barsu’
Pawar said he will soon meet experts to discuss the pros and cons of the proposed oil and petrochemical refinery in Barsu in Ratnagiri. “Recently, I met state industries minister Uday Samant and officials from Ratnagiri. I will now meet experts. We are not against projects or investments but in this case, we also need to take into account the views of the locals and farmers. We have been told that the project will cause extensive damage to the ecosystem and the fishing economy. I would like to go to Barsu and meet the farmers,” he said.