18 March,2024 04:42 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Ajit Pawar/ PTI
In a viral video on social media, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's younger brother Srinivas Pawar can be heard critiquing his choice to distance himself from Nationalist Congress Party founder and their uncle Sharad Pawar, reported PTI.
Ajit Pawar broke away from Sharad Pawar and joined Eknath Shinde government in July of last year along with eight other MLAs causing a vertical split in the party. Following hearings, Ajit Pawar's faction got the party name and 'clock' symbol and Sharad Pawar's faction is now known as NCP (Sharad Chandra Pawar).
According to the report, Srinivas Pawar, addressing residents of Katewadi village in Baramati, said Sharad Pawar had consistently supported Ajit throughout his political career. He also expressed disappointment that someone was disparaging Sharad Pawar's old age despite the support he offered and added that he was advised to side with his brother by some peers but he decided to stay with his uncle.
When we (Srinivas and Ajit Pawar) spoke after the split, I told him you continue to contest the Baramati assembly seat and the Lok Sabha elections from here will be contested under (Sharad) Pawar saheb's leadership," Srinivas Pawar was heard speaking, stated the report.
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"This thought that we are not at all sensitive about an elderly person is very painful for me. Anyone who has such a thought (of forsaking the elderly) is an unworthy person," the deputy CM's younger brother said, per PTI.
Srinivas expressed concern with the concept of abandoning an elderly person for the sake of the future, meaning that such behaviour is unacceptable. He also slammed Ajit Pawar's comments on Sharad Pawar's age and retirement, expressing contempt for anyone who asks that the senior leader step down, according to the PTI report.
According to the report, he said the schism inside the party and family was a plot by the BJP and RSS to weaken Sharad Pawar's influence. Srinivas Pawar expressed his admiration for Sharad Pawar's leadership and dismissed the concept that age reduces a person's strength or influence, the report added.
"How can someone muster the courage to ask such a person (Sharad Pawar) to retire and stay at home? I do not like such a personality. Every medicine has an expiry date, and every relationship too has an expiry date. Consider it as an expiry and move ahead in life," Srinivas said about the split.
He was further heard saying, "I would have been very happy to have an uncle like this. The rift in the party and the family seems to be a ploy of the BJP and RSS to finish Pawar saheb's name," he stated and added, "No one should think someone is weak because they have aged."
