Snubbed, Patil gives up tobacco

From Thursday, three peons posted at Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil’s office on the sixth floor of Mantralaya won’t have to keep a mixture of tobacco and lime ready to hand over to their boss when he needs it. ‘‘I am giving up chewing tobacco,’’ Patil announced, as he offered elaichi to reporters. ‘‘I am chewing this now,’’ he added.

For Patil, the immediate provocation to kick the habit was caustic comments passed by party leader and Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar in Sangli recently. Today, Patil said they were like brothers and there were no differences between them. Adding that there was nothing wrong in the statements made by Pawar against him, Patil said: ‘‘It was said in a lighter vein and should not be taken seriously.’’

At a public function in Sangli, Pawar had said that he was against taking the Deputy CM with him on foreign tours because the latter was addicted to tobacco and spitting, which was banned in many countries.

The junior Pawar’s comments shocked many in NCP circles. Several newspapers carried editorials criticising Pawar for his comments. However, both had apparently patched up, after a word of advice from party chief Sharad Pawar. ‘‘It was brotherly advice. Newspapers blew it out of proportion,’’ grumbled Ajit Pawar. ‘‘Patil is our leader and we all, including me, respect him. Don’t you advise your friends to give up bad habits,’’ he told reporters at his Mantralaya chamber.