NCP's Ajit Pawar quits as MLA ahead of elections

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar has resigned from the post of legislator and the same has been accepted, Maharashtra assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagade said on Friday.

Bagade said he received the resignation of Pawar, former deputy CM and nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, in the evening.

The Speaker said Ajit Pawar did not disclose the reason while tendering the resignation.

"He gave his hand written resignation letter to my PS. He called me up from there. I was surprised. I asked Dada (Ajit Pawar) why he was doing so. Dada told me he would tell me later. He insisted me to accept the resignation letter," Bagade told a news channel.

Ajit Pawar, who represented the Baramati segment, remained incommunicado.

Other NCP leaders too said they were clueless about their leader's move.

"He is unreachable. We are clueless on this (resignation) and the reasons," a senior leader said.

Earlier in the day, key NCP leaders and scores of party workers thronged the city in support of party chief Sharad Pawar, who had planned to visit the Enforcement Directorate office in Mumbai after the agency registered a money-laundering case against him.

Ajit Pawar, however, could not be seen. NCP leaders who were alongside Sharad Pawar, however, maintained Ajit Pawar was in his rain-battered Pune district.

Clueless on why Ajit quit assembly; no feud in family: Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said he was clueless as to why his nephew Ajit Pawar resigned as party MLA, adding that there was no feud within the family.

He however, said Ajit Pawar's son told him that the former Maharashtra deputy chief minister was "restless" after the Enforcement Directorate named the NCP patriarch in a money laundering case.

Talking to reporters, the former Union minister also dismissed reports of a feud within the Pawar family. "There is no feud. My decision is the last word in all family matters," he added.

"When I meet Ajit I will ask him the reason for his extreme decision," Pawar said.

Pawar also said he is a "fighter" and will fight the money laundering case filed against him in connection with the MSC bank scam.

"He (Ajit Pawar) did not discuss the resignation issue with anyone of us. I do not have even an iota of clue as to why did he take that decision... he has been unreachable since," Pawar said.

"I spoke to his son, who told me that his father was restless as he felt that because of him, the name of his uncle, that is me, was dragged in the bank scam despite me having nothing to do with it... I will look into this (Ajit's resignation) as the family head," Pawar said.