In the wake of the controversy generated by NCP president Sunetra Pawar's letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) which omitted the organisational posts held by senior party politicians Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare, sources said that she and her sons Parth and Jay have reached out to Tatkare and sought a meeting. A meeting is likely to take place in the next few days to clarify the issue, sources said.
Background of the Controversy
The letter, submitted on April 29 with the signatures of party national president Sunetra Pawar, contained the list of the party's national executive members. In the letter, Sunetra Pawar was mentioned as national president, while Parth Pawar was named as general secretary and Jay Pawar as national secretary.
However, Praful Patel, who has been serving as working president, was mentioned only as Rajya Sabha leader. Similarly, Sunil Tatkare, who is currently NCP's Maharashtra state president, was referred to only as Lok Sabha leader.
The omission of their organisational posts triggered speculation about whether both leaders had been removed from their positions.
Response from Sunetra Pawar
Responding to the controversy on X, Sunetra Pawar said there were some technical mistakes in the list submitted to the Election Commission and clarified that the errors would be corrected soon. The party has submitted names of 22 members in its national executive committee to the EC. Senior politicians Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse-Patil have been included in the executive committee list, but no specific organisational posts have been assigned to them.
This is the second such instance of Patel and Tatkare's designations being left out. On March 10, when Sunetra Pawar had written to the EC about her election as party president, she had omitted the designations of the two. She had sent a list of 14 office-bearers in which she only mentioned her designation as party president and Shivajirao Garje as treasurer. The letter did not mention the designations of the rest including Patel, Tatkare and food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
