Mumbai: Senior NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Sunil Tatkare has said he wants to see Ajit Pawar as the chief minister of Maharashtra. However, he added that his party will contest the next Vidhan Sabha elections as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally under the joint leadership of Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
“We want to see Ajit Pawar as the chief minister. The party will fight the assembly elections under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. The decisions regarding seat sharing and adjustments will be made by consensus,” Tatkare said in Nagpur on Sunday.
The Raigad Lok Sabha MP defended the party’s decision to join the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra and become an NDA ally without compromising its secular credentials. “I am confident that the people of the state will give a stamp of approval on the political stand taken by the party under the leadership of Ajit Pawar,” he said.
At present, there are political challenges in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls. I am confident that the Ajit Pawar faction will record a 100 per cent strike rate in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Tatkare said.
Our aim is to win more than 45 seats for the NDA in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, he added.
The NCP split on July 2 after Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government, following which the group led by party founder Sharad Pawar submitted petitions seeking their disqualification.
Tatkare made it clear that there was no question of going back to the Sharad Pawar group. He also hit out at NCP (Sharad Pawar camp) MP Supriya Sule saying she was targeting him because he was a ‘Shudra.’
