Senior NCP Leader Offers Resignation in Protest of Sharad Pawar’s Resignation
A day after Sharad Pawar’s resignation announcement, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faces resistance from senior party leaders. Jitendra Ahwad, a former minister and influential leader of the NCP, offered to resign from his position in the party, while colleague Anil Patil offered to quit as MLA. The resignations have yet to be accepted.
Ahwad is a close aide of Pawar and played a vital role in forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with the Congress and the Shiv Sena to establish the government in 2019. The NCP has been requesting Pawar to continue as president until the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure or until Lok Sabha elections.
Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999 after breaking away from the Congress, announced his resignation on Tuesday, claiming he wanted to make way for new leadership. However, he agreed to “rethink” after partymen expressed distress.
There are rumours surrounding Pawar’s nephew, Ajit Pawar, drifting towards the BJP, leaving the party split and joining forces with the BJP as plan B if Chief Minister Eknath Shinde loses the Sena versus Sena case in the Supreme Court.
Sources believe that Pawar could appoint a working president and continue as the chief of the party he founded. With his resignation, Pawar has once again shown that he has control over the party amid rumours of his nephew organising a rebellion and defections.
