‘Nothing clandestine about my Pune meeting with Sharad Pawar,’ says nephew Ajit
The Hindu
On Saturday (August 13), the NCP chief and his nephew met at Pune businessman Atul Chordia’s residence. Sharad Pawar’s confidant, senor NCP leader Jayant Patil was also present.
Clearing the air over his recent meeting with uncle, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in Pune, Deputy CM and rebel NCP leader Ajit Pawar on August 15 categorically denied there had been anything “clandestine” about the meet.
“I am not a person who attends meetings in a surreptitious manner. There is no need to read too much into my meeting with Sharad Pawar. Pawar saaheb himself has said he is the father-figure of the Pawar family. I am his nephew by relation. Despite meeting someone in my own family, the media gives it a different colour and creates misunderstandings,” said Mr. Ajit Pawar, speaking in Kolhapur where he attended the flag hoisting ceremony on occasion of Independence Day.
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On Saturday (August 13), the NCP chief and his nephew met at Pune businessman Atul Chordia’s residence. Sharad Pawar’s confidant, senor NCP leader Jayant Patil was also present.
“The Pawar family have had relations with the Chordia family for over two generations now. Mr. Atul Chordia’s father was Mr. Sharad Pawar’s classmate. Mr. Chordia had invited Pawar saaheb for lunch where Jayant Patil, too, was present. There is no need to read a different meeting into what was a social visit,” said Ajit Pawar, speaking for the first time about the affair.
The Deputy CM laughed off suggestions about the allegedly dramatic nature of his exit from Mr. Chordia’s house, denying he was in a black-colour sedan car which accidently knocked the gate of the businessman’s residence before apparently speeding away to avoid the media glare.
“I was never in that car…I do not attend meetings in a surreptitious manner. Henceforth, any meeting I may have with Mr. Sharad Pawar on occasions like Dussehra or Diwali must be regarded as a family meeting,” he said.