Sharad Pawar holds meeting with top leaders, MLC poll discussed

In the wake of surprising political developments in Maharashtra, and the upcoming state Legislative Council elections, Nationalist Congress Party founder-president Sharad Pawar held a closed-door meeting on Monday with the party’s top brass.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Water Resources Development minister and the NCP state unit president Jayant Patil were among the big names present at the meeting.

The meeting, held at the octogenarian leader’s Silver Oak bungalow here, was mainly to review Maha Vikas Aghadi’s defeat in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, and prepare for the upcoming June 20 Maharashtra Legislative Council poll. It should be mentioned that the MVA leaders had admitted to the shortcomings in planning the Rajya Sabha polls, which led to the Bharatiya Janata Party outsmarting them.

The BJP secured more first-preference votes by riding on the discontentment among the independents and members of smaller parties.

The meeting also gained significance as the Presidential election has been slotted for the next month.

Last week, a delegation of Congress—Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, party’s Maharashtra in-charge H K Patil, state Congress president Nana Patole, revenue minister and Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thorat and Public Works Department minister Ashok Chavan—called on the elder Pawar.

A day earlier, Aam Aadmi Party leader Sanjay Singh, whose party runs governments in Delhi and Punjab, met Pawar to discuss the Presidential election.

In the 2017 Presidential election, the Opposition had forced a contest by backing Meira Kumar, who lost to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind.