Several Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders and corporators on Wednesday returned to the Sharad Pawar camp a day after resigning from the Ajit Pawar-led faction.
Among the leaders who joined Sharad Pawar's faction are Ajit Gavhane, former NCP's Pimpri-Chinchwad unit chief, Rahul Bhosale, Yash Sane and Pankaj Bhalekar.
Buoyed by his faction's growing strength, the octogenarian leader reportedly emphasised that if his nephew Ajit Pawar ever sought to return to the fold, the decision-making would be entirely dependent on the party and not him.
"Everyone has a place in the house. As far as the party is concerned, I wouldn't take the decision myself, all those who stood with me will be consulted," Sharad Pawar was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The Sharad Pawar-founded NCP split in July last year after Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government. After the split, the Election Commission (EC) recognised Ajit Pawar's faction as the real NCP and gave the party name and 'clock' symbol to it.
Meanwhile, it allotted 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' as the party name for Sharad Pawar's faction and "man blowing turha (a traditional trumpet)" as the symbol for it.
In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) won 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. BJP, meanwhile, bagged 9 seats, witnessing a sharp drop when compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when it secured 23 seats. Its allies Shiv Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) bagged 7 and 1 seat respectively.
Earlier this week, Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal met NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar at his residence and sought his intervention into the Maratha quota issue and objections over it by OBC leaders.
Speaking to reporters later, Bhujbal said that he had a meeting with Pawar for nearly one-and-a half-hours and the latter told him that he would discuss the matter with chief minister Eknath Shinde and other leaders in the next two days.
Bhujbal, an OBC leader who belongs to the rival NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, met former Union minister Sharad Pawar at his 'Silver Oak' residence in Mumbai.
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