Parth Pawar at centre of discontent within NCP, Sunetra chairs meeting with party seniors

Pune: Discontent among NCP seniors over Rajya Sabha member Parth Pawar’s growing role in the party’s decision-making was at the core of a discussion chaired by its president and deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar at her Mumbai residence on Tuesday.The meeting ended at 10:30pm and official comments by NCP state president Sunil Tatkare skirted this issue and instead focused on “drought in several parts of the state and steps that ministers need to take post-Diwali”.“The party continues to work unitedly under Sunetra Pawar’s leadership. Some MLAs complained that they were not getting adequate funds from govt departments. They also asked if the finance portfolio would be returned to NCP,” Tatkare said.In the run-up to Tuesday’s meeting, several NCP functionaries objected to the party’s current ways of functioning. “After Ajit Pawar’s death, NCP had unanimously selected Sunetra Vahini as the party chief. However, issues started cropping up with growing interference in the party’s functioning by Parth. He has been trying to force his way in almost every decision, without taking party seniors into confidence,” a senior lawmaker from NCP told TOI.According to NCP functionaries, they tried to take up the issue with Sunetra, but she failed to take any corrective measures. Another NCP senior told TOI, “Some appointments were recently made at the national level and in Mumbai. These appointments were not unanimous. There are discussions within NCP that Parth wanted a reshuffle in the party, by bringing in some new faces and sidelining some old in the state cabinet.”Last week, Umesh Patil replaced Brijesh Shrivastava as the NCP’s chief spokesperson and Zeeshan Siddiqui was named its Mumbai unit president. NCP sources said the decisions were taken by Parth without consulting party seniors. Minister Chhagan Bhujbal publicly said he was unaware of the appointments and had learnt about them only through media reports.While the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting was yet to be determined, several changes, such as restarting the practice of holding ‘janta darbar’ at the party office in Mumbai and holding weekly meetings with MLAs and MLCs, were instantly started. These changes, NCP sources claimed, were part of the agenda discussed at the party’s core committee meeting on Monday.While the top leadership of the party has publicly downplayed the friction, senior lawmakers, while speaking to TOI on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the internal resentment has been simmering since the demise of Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in Jan this year.The internal rift within NCP surfaced after a group of senior party members met Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi without party chief Sunetra Pawar and her elder son and Rajya Sabha member Parth Pawar. Those present at the meeting with Shah included Rajya Sabha MP and NCP national working president Praful Patel, state president Sunil Tatkare, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, former ministers Dilip Walse Patil and Dhananjay Munde, and former MLA Samir Bhujbal.Following the meeting with Shah in Delhi, another round of meetings was held in Mumbai on Monday before Sunetra called the meeting of the core committee at her official residence in Devgiri. One of the senior members, who was part of the meeting with Shah, told TOI, “Based on that meeting and the core committee meeting at Devgiri, a four-page-long agenda has been finalised which would be at the agenda of the party.” The senior NCP member denied that there was any discussion on merger possibilities with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP.While Sunetra gets into damage-control mode, NCP (SP), the other faction of the party, is keeping a close watch on the political developments in the rival camp. While NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar remains hospitalised in Pune, party functionaries said they have no role in the political turmoil in the Sunetra Pawar-led NCP.A senior NCP(SP) functionary told TOI, “Several NCP MLAs have met Sharad Pawar in the last couple of months. But all those meetings were in their personal capacity. While Sharad Pawar has made his stand clear that he will not join NDA, we doubt if any of those MLAs will quit govt and join us to be in the opposition.”NCP (SP) MLA and Sharad Pawar’s grandnephew, Rohit Pawar, on Tuesday, alleged that BJP was “trying to sideline Parth and brother Jay, just like it had driven a wedge between their father, late Ajit Pawar, and Sharad Pawar”.On the NCP netas’ meeting with Shah, Rohit alleged that some of them were more concerned about safeguarding their political positions and securing ministerial berths rather than addressing issues concerning Ajit Pawar’s plane crash and drought relief for farmers. He also claimed that several netas, barring Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, had troubled Ajit Pawar when he had split from his uncle Sharad Pawar to form a separate party.On the possibility of NCP merger, Rohit said the two groups could reunite only if the Sunetra Pawar-led party walked out of the BJP-led NDA and was willing to oppose BJP.