Will seek people's support, not legal remedy: NCP chief

With at least 37 of his 53 MLAs defecting and joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar (82) on Sunday said he would not be pursuing a legal battle, choosing instead to go to the people directly.

- Yogesh Joshi and Yogesh Naik

"There is no need to fight this battle legally, and neither do I have any issues if someone claims ownership over the NCP. We will go to people and seek their support. I am confident they will support us," said Sharad Pawar on Sunday evening, hours after his nephew, Ajit Pawar, claimed that the NCP would ally with the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections.

Pawar's comments, which mean the NCP will not see the sort of bruising legal battle the Shiv Sena did under strangely similar circumstances, lend credence to a theory doing the rounds that there was no way some of the NCP leaders who have gone with Ajit Pawar would have done so without his knowledge, and that the senior Pawar, known for his Machiavellian politics, may well be hedging his bets for 2024. Among the 37 NCP MLAs who have defected and that number is likely to go up in the next few days are some of Pawar's closest aides, Dilip Walse-Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal. But, Pawar said he was undeterred by the split and that he would rebuild his party from scratch.