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“Some of us (Ajit Pawar-led NCP group) have taken a different stand. Some of our well-wishers are trying to see if there can be any change in our stand. That is why they are trying to have a cordial discussion with us,” Pawar was quoted by PTI as saying without taking names.
Asked about the prevailing confusion among NCP’s grassroots workers amid his ‘secret’ meeting with nephew Ajit Pawar, who has joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government in Maharashtra, Pawar insisted that there was nothing secret about his meeting with Ajit. “Ajit Pawar is my nephew and in the Pawar family, I am a father figure now. The meeting between me and someone from my family should not be an issue.” He said there wasn’t any confusion at the grassroots level either. “Whenever there arises a situation of voting (on the floor of the state assembly), we (NCP) will take an appropriate decision.”
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Sharad Pawar-Ajit meeting spooks MVA alliance, Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) ask NCP supremo to clarify stand
In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Fadnavis said he was unaware of the “secret” meeting between Pawars. “I don’t have any information. I don’t know if any such meeting took place, or what transpired during the meeting if it did take place. I don’t have a clue about the venue of the meeting or how long it lasted,” he said, brushing aside media queries on the matter.
The meeting apparently took place amid efforts, said to have been made by the Ajit Pawar faction, to convince the senior Pawar to join the BJP-led NDA at the national level.
Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil, who was also present briefly at the meeting between the two Pawars, said his presence there should not be connected to the ED notice sent to his brother.
In Sangola, Pawar said the immediate priority was to ensure that people in power at the Centre were voted out as there was a need for change. All parties under the INDIA front have come together to meet this objective, he added. When asked whether he was anticipating any differences within the front over who would be its face in the wake of Rahul Gandhi‘s return to Parliament after his two-year sentence in a defamation case was stayed by Supreme Court, Pawar said: “Definitely not.”
Pawar said the impending meeting of the INDIA front leaders in Mumbai on September 1 will be focussed on discussing specific issues and framing a strategy. A preliminary agenda for the meeting will be drafted on August 31.
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