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Maharashtra polls done and dusted, calls from both NCP factions for ‘reunion’; Praful Patel says Sharad Pawar ‘our deity’

Ajit Pawar's mother offers New Year prayers seeking unity, senior leaders from both sides, including BJP, say matter up to family, they have no objections

praful patel, sharad pawar, maharashtra elections 2024, indian express

Praful Patel, a senior member of the NCP led by Ajit, said: ''Sharad Pawar is our deity. (Express Archives)

Among the many prayers made on New Year’s Day, one stands out in Maharashtra. On Wednesday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s mother Asha Pawar visited the temple town of Pandharpur and, in her own words, prayed for the reunion of Ajit and his uncle and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar.

“All disputes should end… Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar should reunite,” Asha Pawar told reporters after visiting the Vithal-Rukmini temple in the temple town, adding that she had also prayed for “all wishes of Ajit Pawar” to come true.

While some would argue that the two wishes are irreconcilable, Asha isn’t the only one wishing for “reunion” less than a month after the Maharashtra election results gave Ajit an edge over Sharad Pawar, under whose shadow the nephew had long stayed — and finally rebelled against.

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Praful Patel, a senior member of the NCP led by Ajit, said: ”Sharad Pawar is our deity. We have a high degree of respect for him. If the Pawar family comes together, it will make us extremely happy. I consider myself a member of the Pawar family.”

Narhari Zirwal, an NCP MLA, echoed the same, saying “it felt odd to have left Sharad Pawar saheb (after the split in June 2023).” “Many feel likewise. Now I will go to him and urge him (and Ajit) to come together. Pawar saheb has been relentlessly working for people from different sections of the society. And he continues to do so.”

NCP spokesperson Amol Mitkari said the uncle-nephew duo could come together if “both make the effort”. But, he added, some NCP (SP) leaders like Jitendra Awhad (Sharad Pawar’s key aide) and Rohit Pawar (Sharad Pawar’s grand nephew) might be a “hurdle” in that. “They will never like the two coming together… But Asha tai’s prayers are the prayer of every karyakarta of both NCP groups…We all feel we should come together,” said Mitkari.

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Asked about this, Ahwad said it was not within his prerogative to make any decision regarding this, and that the Pawars would have to decide for themselves. ”If Asha Pawar is saying that Pawars should come together, then what can I say? It is their family matter. They will have to take the call…What I think does not matter,” he said.

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No, NCP ally BJP would have no problems, said BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule. If the two Pawars were coming together, there was “no reason” for the BJP to “object” to the same, he said. “They have to decide.”

Ajit had split from the NCP in June 2023, taking 40 MLAs with him, later joining hands with the BJP and Shiv Sena and become a part of the Mahayuti government.

In the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November, the NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar finished the last among the six major parties in the fray, winning only 10 of the 86 seats it contested. The two NCPs squared off against each other in 36 constituencies, with the NCP winning 29, including the Pawar clan turf of Baramati.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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