Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Friday said that if a leader takes a different decision then it doesn't mean that there is a conflict in the party.
"There is no rift in the party, all the members are our leaders," Sharad Pawar said.
Pawar's statement has come after his nephew Ajit Pawar with other NCP leaders rebelled and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) led government in Maharashtra.
However, Sharad Pawar continues to maintain that there is no rift in the party.
Pawar also denied that there is no split in the party as it happens only when a large chunk of leaders step out.
"There is no conflict that he (Ajit Pawar) is our leader, there is no split in the NCP. How does a split happen in a party? It happens when a big group separates from the party at the national level. But there is no such situation in NCP today. Yes, Some leaders took a different stance but this can't be called a split. They can do so in a democracy," Sharad Pawar said in Baramati.
Further speaking on Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar said that it can happen once or twice that somebody takes a decision, and later realises that it was not right... in such situation, the party also give them another chance... but if such things happen again then they (leaders who go against the party) should not be given another chance and neither they should ask for it.
It happened once when two people took oath in morning (referring to Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar taking oath in 2019), among them one person from our party was also there.
Pawar further said that he hasn't called Ajit Pawar his leader.
On Supriya Sule's remark, Sharad Pawar said she is her younger sister, it is a brother-sister relationship, so there is no need to put any political meaning into it.
When asked to respon on Sharad Pawar's statement, Opposition leader in Maharashtra Assembly, Vijay Vedettiwar said that this matter should be asked to Pawar Saheb... Devendra Fadnavis can also answer it well as he had done all this... now they meet secretly, they make statements, the BJP should answer this, sometimes they too must be scared about who is going where.
Meanwhile, a key meeting of the Maha Vikas Aghadi Alliance (MVA) will be taking place in Mumbai today.
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