Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

State NCP President Sunil Tatkare said that by Thursday evening, the party’s ministers in the government would be allocated portfolios and the three parties will continue to march ahead in full steam. Nine leaders of NCP were sworn-in as Ministers on July 2.

Earlier, Ajit Pawar pointed out that his uncle should now retire. You portrayed me as a villain in front of everyone. I still have deep respect for him (Sharad Pawar)...But you tell me, IAS officers retire at 60...even in politics - BJP leaders retire at 75. You can see the example of LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi...That allows the new generation to rise,” Ajit Pawar said.

“I miscalculated… I did not realise the developments taking place in the party. I am not pointing fingers at anybody (for the split) and I accept the full responsibility for it,” said Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, in an emotional tug at the masses while addressing a rally in Yeola town.

The meeting holds significance as the Ajit Pawar faction had moved the Election Commission to claim name and symbol of the party, contending that they have the backing of a majority of the party's MLAs. The Ajit Pawar-led camp claimed the backing of 40 elected party officials (MLAs, MLCs, and MPs).

Rahul Gandhi arrived at the residence of Sharrad Pawar in the evening and met Sharad Pawar’s daughter, party working president Supriya Sule and extended his full support with them. According to NCP leaders, Rahul Gandhi also said that Congress is 100 per cent with Sharad Pawar.

The poster was put outside the NCP office here. The poster featured the infamous ‘backstabbing’ scene from the movie, ‘Bahubali: The Beginning’. Ahead of NCP founder Sharad Pawar’s arrival in Delhi on Thursday, posters featuring a scene from ‘Bahubali: The Beginning’, where Kattappa stabs Bahubali in the back, were put up with ‘Gaddar’ written on them.

Addressing the first meeting after the vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in its silver jubilee year, Sharad Pawar (83) said that all the parties which allied with the BJP have ultimately been destroyed politically and the Ajit Pawar-led rebels would meet the same nemesis.

“A small trailer of this was already shown to the people of the state earlier this week in Kolhapur and Pune… They are forgetting that the ordinary workers of the NCP are still with Saheb. Whatever Pawar Saheb says is the final word for us,” he said. Slamming the BJP, Patil said that it is indulging in the politics of stealing and splitting parties in the state and elsewhere for their own benefit.

New and second Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar inaugurated his party office near Mantralaya this morning and installed a large portrait of his uncle, whom his NCP faction has also continued as the party President. Since the past three days, the NCP Ajit Pawar group has been invoking Sharad Pawar’s name for many purposes which has apparently peeved the latter.

Some of them were very close to Sharad Pawar who personally mentored, nurtured and stood by them -- a few even faced probes by Central agencies -- through thick and thin for decades. As the party grew, so did these leaders who were given plum positions within the party and in the successive governments -- with Congress from 1999 to 2014 and later in the Maha Vikas Aghadi regime of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena from 2019-2022.