Rajiv Gandhi had asked Pawar to ensure Vikhe's defeat: NCP

Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had asked Sharad Pawar, who was then in the Congress, to ensure party rebel Balasaheb Vikhe Patil's defeat in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls, the NCP said Thursday.

Pawar recently alluded to how he ensured the defeat of Balasaheb Vikhe Patil and that he also remembered the lawsuit the late Congress leader had filed against him.

Vikhe Patil had rebelled against the Congress and fought as an independent candidate in the 1991 LS polls.

Senior Maharashtra Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil Thursday said Sharad Pawar's comments on his late father were "unwarranted".

Reacting to it, NCP state unit chief Jayant Patil said, "There is no question of insulting Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil. During the Lok sabha elections then, he had stood as an independent candidate. At that time, Rajiv Gandhi ji had put the responsibility of ensuring the Congress candidate Yashwantrao Gadakh's win, which he did. Now, Pawar saheb was only stating what happened almost 30 years back."