Ajit Pawar to stay as NCP backs him

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) bosses said on Friday that deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s ‘pissing in the dams’ remarks were a closed chapter and there’s no need for him to resign, ending days of uncertainty. Amid growing clamour for his resignation from the opposition — Pawar had ridiculed complaints about shortage of water and electricity in the state — the deputy chief minister had left his fate in the hands of his party.

On Friday, after a long meeting between NCP president Sharad Pawar — who is Ajit’s uncle — and Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, it was decided that Pawar Jr needn’t resign and that Congress and NCP would jointly face the opposition in the assembly on Monday. “All NCP MLAs are solidly backing Ajitdada. He has apologised for his comments in the House as well as in front of the media.

As far as we are concerned , the issue is now over. There’s no reason for Ajitdada to quit,” said NCP state president Madhukar Pichad. NCP later issued a statement, expressing confidence in Pawar Jr’s leadership. The charm offensive that the deputy chief minister had launched over the past three days, apologising for his remarks and trying to network with his aides, seemed to have worked. For, when his uncle Sharad Pawar reached Mumbai on Friday to get a sense of what the MLAs felt, they decided to back Pawar Jr, said people familiar with the situation in the NCP camp.

Though the official agenda for the meeting involved issues relating to state transport corporation, Pawar Sr and CM Chavan discussed the fate of Ajit Pawar. The Congress-NCP alliance , that is facing tough times, is likely to face more heat on Monday from an angry opposition that had been calling for Pawar Jr’s head. Pichad said MNS president Raj Thackeray had made worse comments publicly in the past. “Opposition is playing politics over Ajit Pawar’s remarks and NCP will respond to it politically,” Pichad said.

This is the second time that NCP MLAs have come to the rescue of the deputy CM. When Pawar Jr had quit in October over allegations relating to the irrigation scam, a group of MLAs put pressure on the leadership to get him back before the winter session.