'Ajit Pawar is still our leader': Sharad Pawar comment leaves everyone guessing

Amid the ongoing political conflict between Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar and his nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the NCP leader on Friday asserted that there is no split in the party and Ajit Pawar is still their leader.

According to an ANI report, NCP leader Sharad Pawar said, "There is no conflict that he (Ajit Pawar) is our leader, there is no split in NCP. How does a split happen in a party? It happens when a big group separates from the party at the national level. But there is no such situation in NCP today. Yes, some leaders took a different stance but this can't be called a split. They can do so in a democracy."

This comes a day after NCP working president Supriya Sule also said that there was no split in the party and that the BJP had only managed to get some of the party MLAs in the ruling alliance.

There was a huge chaos after Ajit Pawar joined Eknath Shinde government as the Deputy CM. The junior Pawar had to face the backlash of joining the opposition and breaking ties with the NCP. However, a "secret meeting" between Ajit and Sharad Pawar on August 12 at businessman Atul Chordiya's house again created a buzz of senior Pawar joining the Centre or junior Pawar returning to NCP.

It was also alleged that Ajit is trying to convince his uncle to join the BJP. It had also been speculated in July, that BJP had offered Ajit even the chief ministerial position on the condition that he would be convincing Sharad Pawar to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).