“I am not angry. All I have said (to the party) is that the way others have got justice, others’ children are in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and are ministers, I should also be treated in the same manner. This was my demand. I have also been with the party since its formation,” said Bhujbal.
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Bhujbal’s remark about “children” being in the Rajya Sabha and serving as ministers is significant, as he appeared to be referring to Parth Pawar, the elder son of Sunetra Pawar, who was recently sent to the Rajya Sabha, and NCP MP and state president Sunil Tatkare’s daughter, Aditi Tatkare, who is a minister in the state government.
Notably, Bhujbal made these comments after accompanying other senior NCP leaders to the Maharashtra legislative assembly building, where Jain filed his nomination papers. NCP, aware of Bhujbal’s displeasure over being denied the nomination, had deputed senior leader Praful Patel on Monday morning to convince him to attend Jain’s nomination filing.
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Sources within the NCP said while the party wanted to send Bhujbal to the Rajya Sabha, he had put forward a condition that his nephew, Sameer Bhujbal, be inducted as a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government in his place. However, given Sameer’s involvement in several controversies, Fadnavis refused to accept the condition. Following this, Bhujbal is said to have declined the Rajya Sabha nomination.Bhujbal, however, dismissed these reports, claiming there was no truth to them. He also suggested that BJP was not opposed to his candidature, hinting instead that the resistance came from within NCP itself. While NCP has maintained that Bhujbal is not upset, the rival NCP-SP took aim at the NCP leadership for overlooking his claim to the seat.
“The sacrifices he (Bhujbal) has made and the hard work he has put in deserve recognition. After all this, if he wants to come to Delhi, what is wrong with it? When we were together, Pawar Saheb (Sharad Pawar) felt that Bhujbal’s leadership should not be limited to Maharashtra but should be utilised at the national level,” said NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule.
