An 18-member committee of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is set to meet at 11 AM to decide on who will head the 24-year-old party next, days after party chief Sharad Pawar announced that he would be stepping down from the top position, reported PTI.
The committee was set up by 82-year-old Pawar to pick his successor and it includes Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, former Union leader Parful Patel and Bhujbal.
It is speculated that Pawar’s daughter and Baramati Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule could be the next president, while Ajit Pawar will take charge of the Maharashtra unit.
Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership amid continued demand from party workers that he reconsiders his decision. He also kept the hope of the NCP workers, who are demanding the withdrawal of his resignation alive, saying that “their feelings won’t be ignored”.
Speaking outside the Y B Chavan Centre in Mumbai, Pawar said, “I respect your sentiments. I should have discussed my plans with all of you and taken you into confidence. But I know you wouldn’t have allowed me to take the decision (of stepping down as party chief).”
He said some party colleagues from outside Maharashtra will meet him on Friday to discuss the issue. “I will take a final decision in one or two days,” the former union minister told his supporters.
NCP leaders maintain that the position of NCP is likely to remain within the Pawar family as giving it to someone from outside may create rifts in the outfit formed in 1999.
On Tuesday, Pawar sprang a surprise after he announced that he had decided to quit the party he founded and headed since 1999, when he left the Congress to chart his own political course.
Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the stalwarts of the Opposition, had said he was stepping down as NCP chief but was not retiring from public life.
The announcement came amid speculation that Ajit Pawar and some MLAs may join hands with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, though the former deputy chief minister has refuted such talk by claiming he will be with the NCP till he is alive.