Rebel Praful Patel on Sharad Pawar’s ‘don’t use my photo’: ‘Will always…’

Earlier, Sharad Pawar imposed a blow to the Ajit Pawar faction of defectors and said that those who “betrayed” his ideology should not use  his photograph. 

Later, Praful Patel said, “Sharad Pawar is our mentor and Guru…we will always respect and regard him and his position, he is a father figure to all of us. We are using his picture not out of disrespect, but we are showing our reverence towards him”

The verbal battle of pride between the split NCP leaders arose two days after Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra.

“Only the party of which I am the national president and Jayant Patil the state president can use my photograph,” Pawar senior told reporters in Mumbai. In his lifetime, it was his prerogative to decide who should use his photograph, he said. 

“Those who betrayed my ideology and with whom I have ideological differences cannot use my photograph,” the veteran leader added. 

Incidentally, Pawar’s photo was seen at the new office of the Ajit faction in south Mumbai which was inaugurated on Tuesday. 

The Ajit Pawar faction has removed Jayant Patil as state NCP president. Patil, on the other hand, has submitted a petition to the Assembly Speaker seeking to disqualify Ajit and his associates.

The debate over images, party names seems and feels like a DejaVu in the Maharashtra partisan politics landscaper. Only a year ago rebel Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray had found themselves locking horns over the usage of the Shiv Sena symbol and name, following which the Election Commission of India (ECI) intervened. 

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Tuesday said he will have to first decide whether the Nationalist Congress Party is in power or in Opposition in the House and who represents it. 

State NCP president Jayant Patil has submitted a petition to Narwekar seeking to disqualify Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs after they joined the Eknath SHinde-Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government two days ago.

Ajit Pawar was Leader of Opposition in the Assembly before he took oath as deputy CM on Sunday. The NCP has 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.

The entry of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP camp in the Maharashtra cabinet headed by Eknath Shinde has left members of Shiv Sena anxious and many of them are wondering whether their political space will shrink which they might have to share with NCP which has wide base in the state.

Notably, the group of MLAs loyal to Shinde had cited the inadequate allocation of funds by Ajit Pawar, who was finance minister in the erstwhile MVA government, to their constituencies as one of the reasons for rebelling against Uddhav Thackeray.

Updated: 04 Jul 2023, 09:38 PM IST