PUNE: NCP Rajya Sabha member Parth Pawar Wednesday dismissed claims of any discord within the party, asserting that all senior members are respected and consulted while taking decisions. However, some NCP seniors maintained that they were unaware of several recent decisions “influenced by Parth”.In an exclusive interaction with TOI, Parth said there was no substance to speculations that decisions within NCP were being solely taken by him without taking party seniors into confidence.This is the first time Parth has spoken to the media after a group of senior NCP leaders complained about his style of functioning. Some of them had also met Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi without Sunetra or him.“Speculations about any rift in the party are not at all true. We have cordial relations with every member. All the seniors in the party are respected and consulted while taking any decision,” Parth told TOI.Parth’s reaction came a few hours after the NCP core committee meeting chaired by party chief and his mother Sunetra Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday. According to some members who attended the meeting at her house, they raised concerns over recent appointments in the party.Besides Sunetra and Parth, the meeting was attended by NCP state president Sunil Tatkare, working president Praful Patel, ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Hasan Mushrif, former ministers Dilip Walse Patil and Dhananjay Munde and MLA Sameer Bhujbal, among others.Speaking to TOI after the meeting, an NCP core committee member said despite some party seniors expressing disappointment over the recent appointments, Parth was reluctant to revoke them. “Parth said while these appointments would remain in place, future decisions would be taken after consulting the NCP core committee members,” a senior party functionary, who attended the meeting, said.NCP recently appointed MLC Zeeshan Siddique the party’s Mumbai unit chief and Umesh Patil its national chief spokesperson. Some members objected to these appointments. Reacting to the appointments, Chhagan Bhujbal had last week said he was unaware and learnt about them through media reports.In reaction to Bhujbal’s comment, Patil said, “It is possible that he (Bhujbal) could not be contacted before the appointments were finalised, which is why he was not informed.”Before Wednesday’s core committee meeting, Sunetra had chaired a meeting of party MLAs in Mumbai on Tuesday. Discontent among NCP seniors over Parth’s growing role in the party’s decision-making was at the core of the discussion. Several MLAs had during Tuesday’s meeting raised concerns over the lack of funds for development works in their constituencies and difficulties in reaching out to the party’s top leadership.Another NCP core committee member who attended Wednesday’s meeting told TOI, “Some of us reiterated the concerns raised by the party MLAs. Following the discussion, it was decided that some ministers from the party would be assigned as contact points for MLAs to redress issues concerning their respective constituencies. These ministers would then take up the matter with the top NCP leadership.”Some NCP seniors were also of the view that the party was not making adequate efforts to organise public outreach programmes across the state. The core committee decided to start visits to the state’s drought-affected areas after Diwali.“Our ministers will be assigned specific areas to visit and review the drought situation. They will connect with common people and raise their concerns with the local administration. Such initiatives will help the party improve its grassroots connect,” the core committee member told TOI.
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