NCP knows how new leadership is created: Pawar on Shiv Sena jibe

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The Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said he and his party leaders ignore what others say and do not give importance to random statements.

Pawar was responding to an editorial by Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana that claimed Sharad Pawar has failed to create a successor in the Nationalist Congress Party.

He said everybody in the party knows how to take the party forward, and they know how new leadership is created in the party. He was speaking to reporters in Satara on the sidelines of an event.

The Shiv Sena mouthpiece claimed the committee set up to decide on the new president of NCP after Pawar announced his decision to step down included some members who were keen to go with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. But these members were compelled to ask Pawar to continue due to pressure from NCP cadres, it said.

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Notably, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) is one of the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with the NCP and Congress.

Asked about the comments in Saamana, Pawar said, "We do not attach any importance if someone is writing about whether we create new leadership or not. It is their prerogative (to write), but we ignore it. We know what we are doing, and we are satisfied with it."

Pawar said that in 1999, the Congress and NCP came to power and it was decided to form a cabinet.

"From the NCP, Jayant Patil, Ajit Pawar, Dilip Walse Patil and R R Patil got the chance to get inducted into the cabinet. I had worked as a minister of state when I started, and after working as a junior minister, I got promotion. But in 1999, I made all these people cabinet ministers, and the entire Maharashtra saw their work," the NCP chief said. (With inputs from PTI)