Sharad Pawar was, is and will remain our leader: Cooperation Minister Dilip Walse-Patil

Rajesh Tope, Jayant Patil and other leaders belonging to the Sharad Pawar camp were also on the stage.

Patil was one of the nine NCP MLAs who sided with Ajit Pawar to join the government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The defection by Patil, considered very close to Pawar Senior, had taken everyone by surprise.

As Ajit Pawar was not present there, Patil said it was decided that he would take part in the VSI event while the deputy chief minister would attend the inauguration of the Chandani Chowk flyover.

Asked whether he would be comfortable taking the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, Patil said he had been in politics for the past 30 years. “We have taken names of many leaders as per protocol,” he said.

The event, a technical seminar about the cleaning of cane before crushing, was well attended and Patil denied any differences within the sugar lobby after the rift in the NCP. “This was a non-political meeting and nothing more should be read into it,” he said.

Both Pawar and Jayant Patil left the programme midway citing urgent work. For his part, Tope also said the VSI programme was non-political.

Patil said at the programme that the upcoming crushing season of 2023-24 would be difficult as cane availability was going to be a problem. The expansion of the capacity of the mills would cut short the crushing season, leading the mills to incur losses, he added.

The minister urged cooperative mills to take advantage of the Rs 10,000-crore fund with the National Cooperative Development Corporation for setting up ethanol plants. “The deadline to apply for this is in December and I urge the mills to apply before that,” he said.