Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Praful Patel Sunday said the criticism of the Maharashtra government by senior leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal on its handling of the Maratha quota issue is not the official stand of the party.

Bhujbal has echoed the stand of Samata Parishad, an Other Backward Class (OBC) organisation headed by him, and not of the Nationalist Congress Party, Patel told reporters.