The Pawars—uncle and nephew—continue to keep politics simmering. A meeting between them in Pune on Saturday, to be kept a top secret, has sent many tongues wagging yet again. Ajit Pawar attempted to dodge the media while exiting a real estate baron’s palatial bungalow, the venue for the meeting, but his driver dashed against the gate and reversed the black sedan, giving a media posse stationed outside a few seconds to identify the ‘ducking’ passenger. The deputy chief minister’s ‘known’ car had left the venue without a passenger. His security detail was missing for the obvious reasons. The Sharad Pawar group’s state president Jayant Patil was also spotted. His images were shown on television screens. Pawar senior’s presence and exit were also confirmed by media persons in Pune.

Testing convincing power

Before this event, a couple of back-to-back meetings between the leaders, separated but still cordial to each other, had happened in full view of other rebel MLAs and ministers. The cover the Ajit group had taken then was that they wanted the blessings of the senior who they held close to their hearts (notwithstanding that some rebels had opened a verbal fire against the octogenarian after joining the Shinde-Fadnavis government). Actually, Ajit and his ilk had urged Pawar to let them be (in power) and allow the ‘reluctant’ others to move in with them.