NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced that he had decided to step down as president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and will not be contesting elections in the future. Pawar is widely credited as the architect of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). He said, “I am resigning from the post of the national president of NCP.”
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On the occasion of launch of the second edition of his autobiography, ‘Lok Maze Sangati’, Pawar said, “I have three years tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth.” The NCP chief, who founded the party in 1999, said, “I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy.”
#WATCH | "I am resigning from the post of the national president of NCP," says NCP chief Sharad Pawar pic.twitter.com/tTiO8aCAcK
— ANI (@ANI) May 2, 2023
Following his announcement, several NCP leaders and workers rose to their feet and chanted slogans demanding that the NCP supremo reverse his decision. “We do not accept saheb’s decision. We urge you to withdraw it. We will not move until you do it,” an NCP leader was heard saying.
Pawar recommended that a committee comprising senior NCP leaders be formed to decide the future course of action. Pawar said, “The committee will include, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, P C Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells.”
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