NCP president Sharad Pawar said on Monday that he was done with contesting elections after 14 wins and it was time to make way for youngsters in the party.
The veteran leader said his grandson and nephew Ajit Pawar's son Parth Pawar will now take the electoral plunge.
The announcement came as a U-turn considering that the 78-year-old politician had expressed his desire two weeks ago to contest the Lok Sabha elections.
"There was a discussion among the family members that there were already two people from our family contesting the elections. I thought this was the right time to take a call," said Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra and a central minister, in Pune.
Senior NCP leader and sitting MP Vijaysinh Mohite Patil is likely to be renominated for Madha. In 2014, Pawar had decided against contesting from Madha seat and left it for Patil. He said his grandson Parth Pawar will be NCP's candidate from Maval.
This is not the first time Pawar has announced to hang up his boots from active politics. In 2014, he didn't contest the polls and instead won a Rajya Sabha ticket. After reiterating in December 2018 that he won't fight LS elections, Pawar backtracked on February 8, saying he had padded up to take the plunge from Madha. His stance was different on Monday.
Pawar said the NCP's list of candidates is ready and that they are waiting for the Congress's list. "Once their [Congress] list is finalised, we will together declare our candidates."
Pawar flip-flops
- In 2014, he urged NCP workers to vote twice in a political rally by cleaning the indelible ink, only to clarify that the comment had been made in jest
- In 1999, after his suspension from the Congress for raising Sonia Gandhi's foreign roots, he launched NCP. After the general elections, he gladly tied up with the Congress
