Praful Patel was present at Ajit Pawar's oath ceremony at Raj Bhavan yesterday
Praful Patel, senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and a close aide of Sharad Pawar, had a strong response today to media queries on whether he had ditched the veteran politician.
Mr Patel was present at the hurriedly arranged oath ceremony at Raj Bhavan yesterday, where Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP leaders joined the Eknath Shinde-led government in Maharashtra.
This morning, Mr Patel reached Ajit Pawar's residence for a meeting over power-sharing after yesterday's developments.
Responding to questions from reporters, Mr Patel said, "We are the NCP and that is what we are doing."
Mr Patel was also asked about the speculation that he may get a Union Minister post as part of an arrangement following Ajit Pawar's coup, Mr Patel said, "We have not discussed anything about Delhi, we have only discussed about the formation of our government in Maharashtra."
He was then asked if he had "ditched the party and Sharad Pawar". Visibly angry, the senior politician rolled up the car window as the vehicle moved forward, a video shared by news agency ANI showed.
The presence of senior leaders such as Mr Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal at yesterday's oath ceremony had indicated that Ajit Pawar has considerable backing in this round of mutiny.
However, significantly, Mr Patel told NDTV last night that the party is one and Sharad Pawar its leader. "We are one party and Sharad Pawar is our leader. Nobody has defected or broken away from the party. Sometimes there are differences within the party and it gets resolved. You wait for some more days and you'll see what I mean," he said.