Ajit to attend Sharad's birthday dinner

NEW DELHI: When Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar, now of the NCP-SP, turns 84 on Thursday, he will have a special guest at the birthday party.

- Abhishek Angad

His nephew and the leader of the NCP, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar will be attending the small dinner party to be held in the Capital, HT has learnt.

Confirming the dinner, Pawar senior's office said that the party was "for close friends". The office said it did not know about Ajit Pawar's attendance, but the deputy CM's aides said he is definitely attending although his wife and Rajya Sabha member Sunetra Pawar is "undecided" about her attendance. The guest list also includes National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and Shiv Sena's RS member Milind Deora.

"They are family," Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule simply said, although she added that she had no idea if her cousin Ajit Pawar would attend. "All the grandchildren are going to come."