AJIT PAWAR REGRETS NCP'S DECISION TO CEDE CM POST TO CONGRESS IN 2004

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said he should have parted ways with his uncle Sharad Pawar in 2004 itself when the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) gave up its claim on the chief minister's post while forming a government in the state in alliance with Congress.

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Speaking at a campaign rally at Indapur in Pune district for his wife Sunetra Pawar who is pitted against sitting MP and his cousin Supriya Sule of NCP (Sharad Pawar) in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, Pawar said when his uncle made any unexpected political moves, it was called strategy, while his own political decisions are described as betrayal.

"I did not question him (Sharad Pawar) when he toppled the Vasantdada Patil government (in 1978) by not heeding the advice of Yashwantrao Chavan who had given him his first opportunity in politics....or when he questioned Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins in 1999 and split the Congress, and then aligned with the Sonia Gandhi-led party later in that year to form a government in the state," Ajit said.