Maharashtra power tussle: Sharad Pawar holds NCP meetings in Mumbai

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which bagged 54 seats in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections on Wednesday held meetings and took few decisions in Mumbai.

It all began with a meeting of important leaders at Silver Oak, which is NCP chief Sharad Pawar's residence. All prominent faces of the NCP were present at the meeting and were spotted with happy faces as they met Pawar for the first time after Diwali.

A little while later an NCP core committee meeting took place at the YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai. Leaders like Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, Supriya Sule, Dhananjay Munde, Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad, Nawab Malik and other leaders and workers were present in the meeting. A few decisions were to be taken and therefore the core of NCP was present there.

Post core committee meeting, a gathering of the newly-elected MLAs was held in NCP office, Ballard Pier here. The meeting saw the NCP office being decorated with flowers and posters of 'Pawarful NCP' depicting powerful NCP.

It was a comeback of sorts as NCP leaders seemed to be happy and satisfied with the results and the way every winning MLA was welcomed was special in its own way. The meeting also saw Ajit Pawar being elected as the Legislative Party leader unanimously.

Pawar took BJP-Shiv Sena's "arrogance" to task by saying that NCP had won people's hearts and people had taught them a lesson. Pawar also said, "The current scenario is that except the ruling parties of Shiv Sena and BJP, NCP is the most accepted party in the state. The people of Maharashtra have shown us love."

On Ayodhya land dispute case, Pawar said, "The Ayodhya result will be announced soon and it is a matter of faith. Whatever judgement comes we have to make sure that it is accepted and peace prevails everywhere. There should be communal harmony maintained everywhere. There are chances that some forces might take advantage of this but it is important to be calm and accept things."

In a veiled attack at BJP, Pawar also said, "I don't think Article 370 makes relevance at every place. Why do you have to raise the issue of 370 everywhere? How does 370 affect everything? You have to understand that Article 370 is not the only thing in the nation. First, understand the needs of the common man, that is much more important.