Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party leaders Jayant Patil and Sunil Tatkare, who now belong to rival factions headed by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, respectively, on Monday hugged each other and shared a brief chat in the Maharashtra Vidhan Bhavan complex.
As per eyewitnesses, Patil, who noticed Tatkare in the corridor of the legislature complex, hugged the latter and the two had a brief cordial chat for a few minutes, details of which were not immediately available.
Patil later said he hugged Tatkare after they shared a joke and that no other inference should be drawn on political lines. “We embraced each other after a private joke between us.
Although Tatkare and I are in separate parties (NCP factions), it is good to maintain cordial relations with people from other parties,” he said.
Patil said he had lunch with some MLAs of NCP who have gone with Ajit Pawar, but we do not hold any “Mann ki baat” with these legislators anymore. Politics and relations on a personal level have to be maintained separately,” he added.
Patil said clicking such photos without consent in the corridors of Vidhan Bhavan should be banned. The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, suffered a vertical split on July 2 after Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs, including Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif and Dilip Walse Patil, joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government.
Tatkare, a Lok Sabha member from Raigad, and Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel chose to align with Ajit Pawar whereas Jayant Patil, the state unit chief of the undivided party, chose to stay with Sharad Pawar.
Incidentally, after the split, the Ajit Pawar faction announced the appointment of Tatkare as Maharashtra unit chief replacing Patil.
The Sharad Pawar faction had responded by removing Tatkare and Praful Patel from the primary membership of the party and also sought their disqualification as parliamentarians for “anti-party activities”.
Notably, Ajit Pawar and MLAs supporting him, ministers of his camp, and Praful Patel had met Sharad Pawar at the YB Chavan Centre here last week and asked him to ensure the party stays united.
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