3rd Ajit-Sharad meet leads to unease in Congress, Uddhav Sena

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

NCP leader Ajit Pawar and party chief Sharad Pawar may have made Congress and Shiv Sena (Thackeray) faction suspicious of the patriarch's intentions. Ajit met his uncle with 30 MLAs supporting him at the YB Chavan centre on Monday to persuade him to join the rebels and avert a party split. There were two more developments that may have caused a heartburn among Pawar's allies.

Pawar did not go to Bengaluru on Monday, though he is expected to attend Tuesday's conclave, and MLAs of his faction arrived towards the end of an Opposition protest before the assembly session began on Monday. «It is my personal opinion that no one (in the Congress) has liked it (Pawar meeting with Ajit). Maharashtra has some expectations from Sharad Pawar and we expect that he would stand by democracy,» Congress MLA Yashomati Thakur said while speaking to the media outside the state assembly.

Others were not so open about it, but some Congress leaders said Pawar should have refused to meet Ajit and other NCP leaders. Thackeray faction MP Sanjay Raut said that if he was in Sharad Pawar's place, he would have told Ajit Pawar «to get out». Praful Patel and Ajit were closeted with Pawar for close to 45 minutes.

Patel told journalists later that they tried to convince Pawar on the need for NCP unity on aligning with BJP. «Today, Ajit Pawar and NCP MLAs met Pawar to seek his blessings. We had met him on Sunday too, but many MLAs were in their constituencies.