Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) chief Sharad Pawar has firmly denied rumours of joining hands with his nephew Ajit Pawar’s faction, citing ideological differences. Sharad Pawar stated, “We will never join an alliance led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).” Pawar was speaking during a press meet at Patrakar Club of Nagpur on Saturday. Pawar was in Nagpur to flag off the OBC Yatra. It may be mentioned that rumours were doing rounds whether two factions of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would come together after Sharad Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar met at the engagement ceremony of Yugendra Pawar. Yugendra is the son of Shriniwas Pawar, younger brother of Ajit Pawar. Sharad Pawar said, “Our group will only collaborate with those who share their ideology, rooted in the principles of Gandhi, Shahu, Phule, and Ambedkar, making an alliance with Ajit Pawar’s BJP-backed faction unlikely.”

 

In June, Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew Rohit Pawar sparked speculation about a possible merger, but Sharad Pawar quickly dismissed these rumours This decision may impact the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, comprising NCP (SP), Congress, and Shiv Sena (UBT), as Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction continues to prioritise its independence and ideological stance. Replying to a querry, Sharad Pawar said, “MVA should have been more careful before the elections. Had we taken cautious steps, we would have not faced the damages.” Pawar termed as disgusting of making an unnecessary controversy of Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray’s seating at a dinner meeting hosted by Rahul Gandhi. “It was a Power Point presentation. The view from the back is more comfortable when we usually don’t sit in front. In fact Farooq Abdullah and I too sat at the back. Uddhav Thackeray and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah were also seated at the back. What difference does it make? Why to create controversy of such events,” Pawar questioned. Suggesting that Election Commission of India (ECI) should seriously look into the matter raised by Rahul Gandhi, the NCP (SP) President said,

 

“The presentation of Rahul Gandhi was well-researched and well-documented, and ECI should take it seriously, try to find out the truth in it.” In the press conference held by Rahul Gandhi, there were people from Karnataka and Maharashtra and one other State. There are no elections there. No one raised any issue about the situation there. But Rahul Gandhi studied it thoroughly and after presenting all these things to the people, it was the responsibility of the Home Minister to respond to it. But he tried to take this issue to another place, pointed out Pawar. “We are raising this issue in our demonstration on Monday. It will be about the issue of Bihar's voter list. For the last 15 days, there has been a ruckus in the Parliament on this issue. The Parliament was not functioning. The true situation is not coming before the people through the Parliament.

 

That is why we have apprehensions about Bihar,” informed Pawar to mediapersons. Those accompanied Sharad Pawar included Shashikant Shinde, Dr Rajendra Shingane, Anil Deshmukh, Harshvardhan Patil, Jitendra Awhad, Ramesh Bang, Prakash Gajbhiye, Duneshwar Pethe, Salil Deshmukh, Rohit Pawar, Pankaj Thakre, Varsha Shamkule, Rajesh Nimbalkar and others. Adding further, Pawar claimed that two individuals who had met him in Delhi before assembly polls and guaranteed that they would help MVA to win 160 of 288 constituencies. Pawar introduced them to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “I was of the view that we shouldn’t get involved in such things so I didn’t give any importance to claims made by the two individuals, he didn’t possess their names and contact details,” Pawar made it clear.