Mahayuti striving to win over 175 seats as an alliance

Barely five months after a bruising electoral battle in Baramati in the Lok Sabha, NCP chief Ajit Pawar, 65, is back in his pocket borough.

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This time he himself is contesting for an eighth term as MLA and is pitted against another family member, his nephew Yugendra Pawar who is contesting from the NCP (SP). Edited excerpts from an interview with Faisal Malik in which Pawar spoke of family tensions and why he thinks the Mahayuti will return to power.

It’s a little over a year since you split the party. Can you speak about what the tipping point was? First of all, I did not leave the

party. All the MLAs submitted a letter to (Sharad) Pawarsaheb asking for his permission to join the government. He granted his permission and appointed a three-member committee comprising Praful Patel, Jayant Patil and me for negotiations but that did not materialize. The MLAs were of the view that they needed to be in the government to complete the pending development works. Finally, a decision was unanimously taken (by the MLAs) to join the government.

Was Sharad Pawar also part of the negotiations with the BJP-Sena government?

No, he had already formed a three-member committee.

You stand accused of taking over NCP’s name and symbol.

I have not done anything of the sort. It was a decision pronounced by the Maharashtra Assembly speaker and the Election Commission of India.