A committee of the Nationalist Congress Party will meet at 11 am today to decide on who will head the NCP next, days after party chief Sharad Pawar announced that he would be stepping down from the top position.
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.
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.
Here are 10 points to keep you updated with the big story from Maharashtra politics
(1) Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on May 2 announced his resignation as the party president.
(2) Who will now be the NCP Chief? The question in prevails in the minds of political leaders as well as citizens. However, the party believes that the position would best be taken over by someone from the Pawar family.
(3) Reportedly, the mantle of NCP chief would be made from within the Pawar family as giving the reins to someone from outside may lead to rifts and power tussles in the outfit formed in 1999.
(4) Either Sharad Pawar's nephew or daughter would be his successor, Ajit Pawar or Supriya Sule, the party hopes while also considering prominent leaders from NCP such as former Union leader Parful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal among others.
(5) It was recently noted that leaders asserted Sule, a three-term LS MP, had established herself as an effective parliamentarian and has contacts with leaders of parties across the political spectrum, whereas Ajit Pawar has a good hold over the state unit and is widely acknowledged as an able administrator.
(6) Incidentally, senior NCP leader and former state minister Chhagan Bhujbal had said Sule should take up the party's national mantle and Ajit Pawar must head the state unit, though the MLA from Yeola in Nashik was quick to add that this was his personal opinion.
(7) NCP is in talks with allies Congress and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) to pitch its leader as the Chief Ministerial face of the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the next assembly election.
(8) Speaking on the future of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Maharashtra Congress vice president Ratnakar Mahajan said the current situation was "complex and unpredictable". But he suggested that all the three constituents of the MVA would stay together in the light of results of recent polls.
