Don't resort to personal attacks: Pawar to rebels

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) patriarch Sharad Pawar said on Saturday that he was not retiring from politics and warned the party's rebel leaders to refrain from making personal attacks against him as he held his first rally since the split in his party last week.

- Faisal Malik

The crisis in the NCP began last Sunday when Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP lawmakers joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and took oath as ministers in the Maharashtra government. The rebellion set off a string of tit-for-tat disqualifications, appointments, public meetings in both camps, and representations to the Election Commission in what was an almost play-byplay repeat of a split last year in the Shiv Sena that brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Addressing a rally in Nashik's Yeola, which is the assembly constituency of his former deputy Chhagan Bhujbal, who was among those who rebelled against him, the 82-year-old veteran politician said that his rivals can criticise his policies but they shouldn't resort to personal attacks.