Mumbai: Two weeks after revolting against his uncle, Ajit Pawar paid a surprise visit to Sharad Pawar on Sunday and sought his “blessings.”
Ajit, along with eight NCP MLAs, took oath as ministers in the Eknath Shinde-headed Maharashtra government on July 2, thus splitting the Sharad Pawar-founded Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
Today’s meeting at YB Chavan Centre is being seen as an attempt to pacify the NCP supremo, who has disowned the ‘rebels’ and sought to keep the rest of the flock together.
“We all have come to take blessings from our ‘God’ Sharad Pawar. We got to know that Pawar saheb was here. So we took the opportunity and came here to take his blessings,” senior leader Praful Patel said.
“We requested Sharad Pawar that the NCP should stay united… he kept listening to what we were saying but did not react,” Patel said after the hour-long meeting, a day before the Monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly begins.
Ajit, now the Deputy CM, and his fellow-rebels didn’t take an appointment to meet the 83-year-old Sharad.
It was their first meeting after the rebels joined the Shinde government.
Ajit, however, on Friday visited Sharad’s official residence Silver Oak to meet the latter’s wife Pratibha Pawar after she underwent surgery.
Ajit is known to be close to his aunt Pratibha, who reportedly played a crucial role in bringing him back to NCP fold after he and Devendra Fadnavis formed a short-lived government following the Assembly polls in 2019.
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