‘Neither tired, nor retired’: Sharad Pawar responds to nephew Ajit’s retirement barb

The statement comes days after newly appointed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar took repeated swipes at his uncle, suggesting that it was time for him to make way for young blood.

Written by Vallabh Ozarkar

Mumbai | Updated: July 13, 2023 03:36 PM IST

3 min read

During his press conference, Sharad Pawar also announced that he will hold rallies even outside Maharashtra. (PTI)

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Reacting to his nephew Ajit Pawar’s statement that he should retire from active politics on account of his age, NCP leader Sharad Pawar Saturday echoed late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and claimed that he was “neither tired nor retired”.

“What does age have to do with this? Main na tired hun, na retired hun (Neither am I tired, nor retired). Do you know at what age Morarji Desai became prime minister? There are many leaders now also who are more than 70 years old. I do not have ambitions of becoming the PM. I just want to work for the people,” Sharad Pawar said.

“Who are they to tell me to retire? I can still work,” the 83-year-old retorted. The Maratha strongman and former Maharashtra CM made the statement while addressing a press conference in Nashik ahead of his rally in Yeola, the constituency of Chhagan Bhujbal who sided with Ajit Pawar.

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“Today’s situation is not new to me. In 1980, 52 out of 58 MLAs had left. With only six MLAs I led the party. I know how to rebuild the party from scratch. I do not believe there has been any split in the family. It was nice to see familiar faces on reaching Yeola. I am not here to personally criticise anyone,” Pawar Sr said.

During his press conference, Sharad Pawar also announced that he will hold rallies even outside Maharashtra.

Responding to questions on Praful Patel’s allegations that Supriya Sule had become the fulcrum of all his actions, and he foisted his decision on everyone, Sharad Pawar said that on several occasions he did injustice to Sule. “Party workers wanted Supriya to join politics, she fought Lok Sabha polls and won. We made Praful Patel a Union minister for 10 years. He lost the Lok Sabha election, and despite that, we gave him a Rajya Sabha seat twice,” Sharad Pawar said.

Accepting the fact that there were discussions with the BJP, Sharad Pawar said, “In politics, we need to have dialogues with different parties, but that does not mean we are having an alliance with them.” Notably, Ajit Pawar recently remarked that the NCP held talks on numerous occasions with the BJP to discuss the possibility of forming an alliance.

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Sharad Pawar Saturday also hit out at the rebel NCP MLAs stating that all of them would lose the elections. He criticised the BJP saying, “There is a systematic plan of the BJP to weaken the Opposition parties in the country.”

Sharad Pawar signed off by saying, “I do not consider anyone as an enemy in politics. There could be ideological differences between the two parties but I do not consider them as enemies.”

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