'Perhaps, he must have thought that it was time to pass on the baton to the younger generation.'
"Do you know even at this age he is fitter than most of us and works for almost 18-19 hours every day?". former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.
Supriya Sule, the NCP MP from Baramati and Sharad Pawar's daughter, claimed that Maharashtra politics will experience two earthquakes. Is Sharad Pawar's resignation as the NCP's national president one of the two earthquakes she was talking about?
You better ask this question to her.
But you are among the Pawar family's confidantes. Was she hinting at Sharad Pawar's resignation?
I would still say you better ask this question to her. I am not the right person to comment about what Supriya tai said.
Would you have any inkling that he would resign as party president?
Pawar saheb took this decision without consulting his workers or members of NCP's core committee. He naturally knew that if he were to consult any of us we would all have opposed it. So, nobody had any idea about what was going on in his mind. He took this decision on his own.
But now there is lot of pressure on him from his well-wishers, party workers, MLAs, MPs to withdraw his resignation.
This afternoon (May 4), Sharad Pawar addressed party workers who are sitting on a dharna demanding he withdraw his resignation and told them that he will soon take a decision and after two days they will not have to sit on a dharna. Does that give an indication that he will withdraw his resignation?
He has asked his supporters to give him a couple of days and they will come to know about what his final decision will be. Let's hope (he withdraws his resignation). Everybody in the NCP is trying for it.
Did you have a one-on-one meeting with him? What conversation did you have with him?
I conveyed to him what every single party worker and leader I met. I told him that every NCP worker wants him to continue as the national president. I told him that I was completely shocked by his decision and pleaded with him to withdraw his resignation.
Do you know even at this age (Sharad Pawar was 82 on 12/12/2022) he is fitter than most of us and works for almost 18-19 hours every day? He travels across India even at his age and is one of the towering political leaders in contemporary India.
He is the only one who can coordinate with all the Opposition leaders in Maharashtra and at the national level.
What made him take such a decision?
I am still shell-shocked. Perhaps, he must have thought that it was time to pass on the baton to the younger generation. But each and every NCP worker is still pursuing him to withdraw his decision.
The core committee named by Pawar saheb is meeting again tomorrow (May 5); let us wait and watch what decision the core committee takes and if it will be able to persuade him to change his mind.
Isn't the core committee already unanimous that they will not accept his decision and he will be asked to continue as NCP's national president?
Let's see what happens at the meeting of the core committee. But we will continue our efforts to make him withdraw his resignation.
There are reports in the media as well that Sharad Pawar resigned to prevent a split in the party and family.
There is no truth in such 'sources'-based stories. These reports are baseless.
