Jayant Patil dismisses rumours of meeting Amit Shah, reiterates loyalty to Sharad Pawar

Speculations were rife about Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil joining the breakaway faction led by Sharad Pawar's nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

ajit pawar, Jayant Patil, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Mumbai news, Maharashtra, Indian Express, current affairs

Nationalist Congress Party state president Jayant Patil (Image: Facebook)

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Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Jayant Patil Sunday reiterated his loyalty to Sharad Pawar and quashed rumours of a possible switch to the breakaway faction led by the party supremo’s nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

Amidst wide speculation about him meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Pune, Patil said, “I have absolutely no idea from where this information is coming. But there is no such thing. I met Sharad Pawar on Saturday evening. Along with my party colleagues, we were together at my residence in Mumbai till 1.30 am. On Sunday morning, too, I met Sharad Pawar. And now I am heading to the NCP office.”

“So, where is the question of going and meeting anybody?” he asked.

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Patil was among the first to break down in public when Pawar senior offered to step down as party president in May, a decision he reversed later. In a lighter banter within the Legislative Assembly in the Monsoon Session, Ajit even taunted Patil that he and fellow Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP were waiting for his attention.

On July 2, Ajit and 36 NCP MLAs joined the BJP-led coalition government in Maharashtra. While Ajit became deputy chief minister with the finance portfolio, eight other NCP MLAs also got plum portfolios.

Dilip Walse-Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal, considered the most loyal to Sharad Pawar, were among those who joined the Ajit-led NCP and became ministers.

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