Is all well in the Pawar family?
AFTER AJIT’S REVOLT After NCP chief’s remark that Parth is immature, rumours of rift in the family re-emerge
MUMBAI : Eight months after an open revolt by Ajit Pawar (now the deputy chief minister), the Pawar family is again facing the same question, is all well? This time, because of Ajit Pawar’s son Parth.
A day after Pawar called his grand-nephew (Parth) “immature” and said he doesn’t give a damn about what the latter says, three meetings were held, including one on Thursday evening.
Parth had demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case a few days ago, following which Pawar on Wednesday said, “We give no importance to what my grandnephew (Parth Pawar) says. He is immature.” Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai apartment on June 14.
It is yet unclear how Ajit is reacting to the public rebuke for his son as he chose not to talk to the media. But there were rumours that Parth was upset and may take a decision, which was refuted by senior NCP leaders. Parth reached Silver Oak, Pawar’s residence at south Mumbai, on Thursday evening to meet the NCP chief and his daughter
Supriya Sule. The meeting went on for more than two hours. Parth avoided speaking with the media after coming out. NCP insiders said Sule had called Parth home. “We are expecting all issues would have been resolved. His decision to meet the NCP chief indicates a positive development,” said an NCP leader.
Before that, Sule met Ajit at his Mantralaya office on Thursday afternoon. The meeting between the cousins lasted an hour.
State NCP chief Jayant Patil, considered as close aide of Pawar, said neither Parth nor Ajit is upset and Sule went to meet the latter to discuss development works of her parliamentary constituency. “Who said Parth is upset? Being a grandfather, he (NCP chief) has all the authority to say or suggest something. Do we get upset when a father figure in the family says something,” Patil asked reporters. “I don’t see any intention.”
Before that, a meeting was also held at Pawar’s residence on Thursday evening where Sule, Ajit and state NCP chief Jayant Patil were present.
Patil denied any discussion on Parth at the meet too. “It was a scheduled meeting. We had discussions on several issues. The party allows everyone to express their views. He (Parth) may have said something that I’m not aware of. There was no discussion on Parth’s statements, also no clarification will be sought from him,” he said. NCP insiders said Pawar is certainly unhappy, but by ridiculing his grandnephew publicly, he has also given a clear message to all leaders that any deviation from the party line will not be tolerated.
This is the first time the veteran leader has slammed a family member publicly. “Pawar saheb made the statement as the party president. He should have raised the issue on the party forum before going public,” said an NCP insider.
Senior NCP leader and food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal too said that no one in the family was upset and Pawar only said that Parth was new. “The family is united, everything is fine and we are also members of the same family. No one is upset, not even Ajit dada (Ajit Pawar),” Bhujbal said.
Political experts feel Pawar wants to end Parth’s habit of speaking out of turn on policy matters. “It doesn’t appear that Parth’s statements had anything to do with Ajit,” said Prakash Bal.
The Pawar family has seen an open revolt by Ajit and a few other NCP lawmakers only last November. They had got together with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and had hurriedly cobbled together a government. Former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had taken the oath as the chief minister, while Ajit too was sworn in as the deputy chief minister, but returned to the party as most NCP legislators, who were loyal to the party chief, refused to side with the rebel faction and the government barely lasted for 80 hours. A month later, Ajit Pawar was sworn in again on the same position in the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.
Parth had contested last year’s Lok Sabha election from Maval constituency in western Maharashtra against the wishes of the NCP chief. He was not in favour of Parth contesting the general polls, but surrendered to the pressure from the family and declared his withdrawal from the electoral fray, saying only two members from the family should contest polls at a time. Pawar was preparing to contest from Madha parliamentary constituency at that time. However, Parth lost the parliamentary election to sitting Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne.
ON MUMBAI-AHMEDABAD HIGHWAY