'NCP works as family': Sharad Pawar on Saamana's critical editorial

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday hit back at the Shiv Sena's (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) mouthpiece, Saamana, over a critical editorial, saying the party works as a family and he hardly cares what others write about him. On Monday, Saamana wrote that Pawar failed to groom his successor, to which he replied that those he groomed had already proved their mettle.

• On Monday, Saamana's Executive Editor Sanjay Raut reportedly accused Pawar of failing to prepare a successor to head the NCP.
• Nonetheless, the article lauded Pawar's strategic maneuver of undermining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s plans to divide the NCP with his resignation announcement, calling it a "masterstroke."
• The NCP patriarch announced his resignation last week but reversed his decision days later.

While responding to Monday's editorial, Pawar said, "We don't attach importance to what people write as to whether we have groomed a successor or not. We ignore it. We know what we are doing. We get satisfaction out of that". "Our party colleagues present their views, but we don't make that public. It is an issue that belongs to our family," he added.

Pawar cited the example of top NCP leaders who became cabinet ministers following the 1999 election win to further refute the claims made in Saamana. He stated that when the NCP came to power with the Congress, the party sent Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, RR Patil, Dilip Walse-Patil, and Anil Deshmukh to the Maharashtra Cabinet for the first time, and they "proved their mettle."

The 82-year-old leader, who has led the NCP for 24 years, announced last week that he is stepping down, much to the shock of party workers. Later, Pawar announced that he would take some days to reconsider after increasing pressure from party members and leaders. Finally, Pawar retracted his resignation on Friday, saying it was improper to disrespect workers' sentiments.