Sharad Pawar is not a powerful leader like Dilip Walse Patil, the former home minister of Maharashtra, but he has never formed a government on his own. Dilip Walse Patil joined the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar after previously supporting Sharad Pawar in the party.
Patil while addressing party workers at Ambegaon taluka, his constituency, he said, “We always say that there is no big leader like Sharad Pawar in the country, but the people of Maharashtra have never given him a majority and never made him the Chief Minister on his own.”
The former Home Minister also points out that other regional parties are moving ahead on their own, but NCP is lacking behind.
“Mamata Banerjee and Mayawati become the CM, but we have to form an alliance with someone or the other. The regional party is moving ahead on its own, but our 60 to 70 MLAs get elected and we have to form an alliance with others,” Patil said.
Dilip Walse Patil further said “We have not joined BJP, NCP is our own party, we are in NCP only. The Election Commission will decide who will get the name and symbol of the party, after that, there can be a stir in the politics of the state.”
They were informed that if they joined the BJP, “nothing would happen to their cases, but if they didn’t join, they would be taken to a different location (jail),” On Sunday, Sharad Pawar said. Ajit Pawar, who was the then-leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, switched sides a few months ago and joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government, taking oath as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister. This sparked a crisis within the NCP. With Ajit Pawar, eight additional NCP MLAs took the oath of office as ministers.