As Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar turned 80, his close party colleagues, as well as new ally Shiv Sena extended warm greetings to the latter on his birthday. An event was organized on Saturday on the occasion of Sharad Pawar's 80th birthday in Beed by Maharashtra cabinet minister Dhananjay Munde.
Several party workers attended the event which also included the cake cutting ceremony. However, soon after the cake was cut, several NCP workers thronged on to the stage to get their share of the cake.
People were seen going berserk over the cake, violating all social distancing norms in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. People were also seen hurling chairs at each other during the event. The incident was captured on camera and it is being widely circulated on social media.
In the video, NCP workers could be seen falling over each other, pushing and punching each other, and pouncing at the cake. Some of the fellow colleagues were even pushed off the stage.
Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra chief minister, was defence minister between June 1991 to March 1993.
He quit the Congress in 1999 citing the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and formed the NCP in 1999, but later he joined the UPA government headed by the Congress in 2004 and served as Union agriculture minister for the next ten years.
At present, the NCP is sharing power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).