"I Had 2 Options - Power Or Struggle": Supriya Sule On Party Split

Nationalist Congress Party working president and Baramati Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule on Thursday said she had two choices in front of her, power and struggle, and she chose the latter.

"I had two options, power or struggle. On the side of struggle, there was my father and on the side of power was (Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader) Amit Shah. I had to choose between power and struggle. I chose struggle," she said at a public meeting in Indapur.

"Do not forget the person who has given you birth. Someone has to say the truth. If we all get scared, there will be no democracy in the country. Today, we were sabotaged. Tomorrow you will meet the same fate," she said in an apparent reference to the split in the NCP on July 2 this year.

Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government, while Ms Sule and several others chose to remain with party founder Sharad Pawar.

Ms Sule said she had informed her family that she would be staying in Baramati for the next 10 months and would not be coming to Mumbai.

Lok Sabha polls will held in the first half of 2024, while Assembly polls in Maharashtra will take place in latter part.

"I told my husband and children I will stay put in Baramati till October. I told them I would not be coming to Mumbai and asked them to manage themselves," she said.

"The coming elections will be paramount for the country and that is why the next few months will be very crucial for all of us to decide the fate of the next five years," she asserted.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)