News Analysis India

Tag: NCP

  • NCP supremo Sharad Pawar likely to meet Mamata Banerjee in Delhi on July 28

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said he is likely to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday in New Delhi, where the TMC head will hold parleys with opposition leaders to explore ways to cobble together an alliance of anti-BJP parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

    Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Monday on her first visit to the national capital since assuming office as the West Bengal CM for a third term and is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.

    The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, who apparently seeks to take up a larger role in national politics prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, is also scheduled to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and a host of other leaders from opposition parties.

    ALSO READ | Regional parties should form national front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls: Sukhbir Singh Badal

    Responding to a question in this context by reporters here, Pawar, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra, said, “She called me last week and told me about her visit to New Delhi and her willingness to meet. I think we are likely to meet tomorrow in New Delhi. The former Union minister, however, refused to comment on the Pegasus snooping controversy.

    “This is not the time and place to say anything about it. We will raise the issue at the right place-in Parliament. We will try to raise it there,” he said.

    Last week, an international media consortium had reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers, including of two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India, could have been targeted for hacking through the Pegasus spyware of the Israeli firm NSO.

    However, the central government has been denying all Opposition allegations in the matter.

  • Rahul Gandhi gives nod to Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole to fight local body elections solo

    Express News Service
    MUMBAI: After meeting with Congress leaders in Delhi, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said that the Congress will fight the upcoming local body and other elections on its own and they will not make an alliance with any political front.

    Patole, who is a close confidante of Rahul Gandhi, said that Rahul has given the green signal to him to contest the local body and other elections on its own. The senior party leader said that this decision of contesting solo will not have any impact on the incumbent Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance as they will continue to share the power and work to expand the base of the party.

    “We had a very good meeting with our leader Rahul Gandhi. We discussed various issues to strengthen the party at every nook and corner and so we decided that though the Congress party will remain with Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, it contest the upcoming elections on its own only,” Patole said.

    Patole’s statement is very significant because he was the first to declare and consistently make statements of Congress contesting solo the future elections. However, his own party leaders rubbished his claim till Rahul Gandhi himself gave the green signal for solo elections.

    Earlier, NCP chief Sharad Pawar was angry with Patole’s claim of Congress fighting the local body elections solo. When the AICC’s Maharashtra in-charge Hanumanthagowda K Patil and state ministers Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan went to meet Pawar at his residence in Mumbai, Pawar asked these leaders whether the Congress high command has givenPatole the rights to to take such decisions.

    Pawar also said that if this is the stand of the Congress high command, then he will also prepare for his party. Patole said that the party got ditched in 2014 when NCP broke the alliance at the eleventh hour and hence, to avoid a similiar mistake, he has been preparing his party for the solo contest from today only.

  • NCP chief Sharad Pawar holds nearly hour-long meeting with PM Modi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: NCP president Sharad Pawar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday and both the leaders held talks on a number of issues including the Banking Amendments Act and the cooperative sector in a nearly hour-long meeting.

    The Prime Minister’s Office tweeted a picture of their meeting but shared no details about their talks.

    In a tweet, Pawar said, “Met the Hon’ble Prime Minister of our country Narendra Modi. Had a discussion on various issues of national interest.”

    The meeting comes two days before parliament’s Monsoon session which is set to start on Monday.

    Later, Pawar tweeted a letter he wrote to the prime minister about the amendment in the Banking Act.

    “I wish to point out certain inconsistencies and the resulting legal inefficacy of normative provisions of the Act that are in conflict, most specifically with the 97th Constitutional Amendment, State Cooperative Societies Acts and with the Cooperative Principles.

    “I reiterated in the letter that the aims and objectives of the amended Act are well-intentioned and many provisions are necessary. Erring board and management must definitely be acted upon strictly and the depositors’ interests should be protected, but at the same time it should be ensured that while doing so, the cooperative principles laid down in the Constitution are not sacrificed at the altar of over-zealous regulation,” Pawar tweeted.

    Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sharad Pawar met PM @narendramodi. @PawarSpeaks pic.twitter.com/INj26CLl0k
    — PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 17, 2021

    This letter comes days after the Centre formed a new Ministry of Cooperation which is headed by senior BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah.

    The cooperative sector is movement is well entrenched in states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

    The NCP said that Sharad Pawar’s meeting with Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi was a scheduled one to discuss amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, among other things, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies were aware of it.

    NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik said that AICC general secretary H K Patil was told about this scheduled meeting when he and other Congress leaders met Pawar in Mumbai recently.

    “Even Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was apprised of this meeting,” he added.

    A veteran leader widely recognised for his political acumen, Pawar is the main architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra and is seen as a lynchpin for any future opposition alliance against the BJP.

    Squabble among alliance partners over one issue or another has often come to the fore, with state Congress president Nana Patole’s frequent digs at other two partners — the Shiv Sena and the NCP — making news of late.

    The 80-year-old leader is also known for his warm relations with politicians across party affiliations.

    Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal had met Pawar on Friday.

    Singh had briefed Pawar, who has been a defence minister earlier, on the border row involving China, Goyal had met him as part of the government’s outreach to opposition leaders before the start of the monsoon session.

  • BJP and NCP like two ends of river that can never meet: Nawab Malik

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Dismissing speculation about the NCP and BJP coming together fuelled by a meeting in Delhi between party chief Sharad Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Saturday said the two parties are like two ends of a river that can never unite.

    During their nearly hourly-long meeting, Pawar and Modi held talks on various issues including the Banking Amendments Act and the cooperative sector.

    “The NCP can never join hands with the BJP because both the parties are ideologically different. The BJP and NCP are two ends of a river that cannot come together as long as there is water in the river,” the NCP spokesperson told reporters here.

    Malik said there is no truth in such rumours.

    The Sharad Pawar-led party is one of the constituents, along with the Congress, in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

    Notably, the NCP had offered outside support to the BJP to form a government in Maharashtra after the 2014 assembly elections “in the interest and development of the state”.

    However, the BJP had come to power with the support of the Shiv Sena.

    The saffron allies fell out after the 2019 Assembly elections after the Uddhav Thackeray-led party staked claim to the post of the chief minister.

    The Sena then joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the MVA government in November 2019 with Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister.

    “The definition of nationalism is different for the NCP and the BJP,” Malik said, adding the MVA government is working fine.

    “Some people are giving dates for toppling the MVA government but their prediction will never come true,” he said without taking any names.

    Hitting out at the BJP, Malik compared the saffron party with a “washing machine”.

    “The BJP is like a washing machine where a dacoit can also become a saint,” he said while accusing the BJP of using Central investigating agencies to force leaders of other parties to switch sides.

    “NCP leaders don’t fear notices by ED because they know they have not done anything wrong. Our leaders haven’t met PM Modi or (Union home minister Amit) Amit Shah asking them to stop the probe,” he said.

    At present, senior NCP leader and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case in line with a CBI probe into allegations of corruption raised against him by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.

  • NCP says MVA allies kept in loop about Pawar-Modi meeting in Delhi

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The NCP on Saturday said that party chief Sharad Pawar’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi earlier in the day was a scheduled one to discuss amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, among other things, and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies were aware of it.

    Addressing a press conference, NCP spokesperson and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik said that AICC general secretary H K Patil was told about this scheduled meeting when he and other Congress leaders met Pawar in Mumbai recently.

    “Even Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was apprised of this meeting,” he added.

    The NCP shares power with the Shiv Sena and the Congress in Maharashtra as part of the MVA government that was formed after the 2019 Assembly elections.

    Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted a picture of the meeting between Pawar and Modi that lasted nearly an hour, during which they held talks on a number of issues.

    Malik said, “Amendments to Banking Regulation Act would hurt the co-operative sector banks since more powers were given to the RBI and while cooperative banks faced restrictions in power.

    Cooperation is a state subject… Pawar has been discussing the issue with all the stakeholders.”

    “He (Pawar) had spoken to the PM over phone and it was decided to meet whenever he is in Delhi,” he said. The NCP leader said that Pawar also raised the issue of COVID-19 handling and the process of vaccination during the meeting.

    “Yesterday, CM Uddhav Thackeray had told the PM that a national policy to stop crowding at public places should be framed,” he said.

    Malik, however, rejected reports that Pawar had met BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis in Delhi.

    Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who is in Delhi, told reporters that he wasn’t aware of any meeting between Pawar and Fadnavis.

    “There is no politics in Pawar-Modi meeting. There can be discussions on various issues other than politics,” Raut said.

    Meanwhile, the NCP also released a letter written by Pawar to Modi, in which he has said that although the objectives behind the amendments to the Banking Regulation Act are laudable, they do little to promote the well-being and growth of the cooperative sector.

    Pawar submitted the letter to Modi during their meeting on Saturday.

    “You recently advised the rural youth to engage in micro, small and medium-size businesses along with their farming activities so as to make them ‘atmanirbhar’ under the adverse climatic conditions.

    The cooperative banks can contribute to this cause since they have expertise of lending to these first time borrowers and contribute more than 23 percent of their advances of Rs 3.04 lakh crore to small and micro industries, he said.

    “The growth of this sector is crucial to the holistic development of the country and all efforts should be made to encourage this sector,” the former Union minister added.

    “The aims and objectives of the amended Act are well-intentioned and many provisions are necessary.

    The erring board and management must definitely be acted upon strictly and depositors’ interest should be protected, but at the same time it should be ensured that while doing so, the cooperative principles laid down in the Constitution are not sacrificed at the altar of over-zealous regulation,” Pawar said in the letter.

  • NCP chief Sharad Pawar meets PM Modi in New Delhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: NCP president Sharad Pawar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

    The Prime Minister’s Office tweeted a picture of their meeting but shared no details about their talks.

    The meeting comes two days before Parliament’s Monsoon session starts on Monday.

    A veteran leader widely recognised for his political acumen, Pawar is the main architect of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra and is seen as a lynchpin for any future opposition alliance against the BJP.

    Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sharad Pawar met PM @narendramodi. @PawarSpeaks pic.twitter.com/INj26CLl0k
    — PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 17, 2021

    The 80-year-old veteran leader is also known for his warm relations with politicians across party affiliations.

  • Piyush Goyal meets senior Opposition leaders ahead of Monsoon Session

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Newly-appointed Leader of House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal met senior Opposition leaders including former prime minister and Congress veteran Manmohan Singh, his party colleague Anand Sharma and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday.

    Sources said Goyal met the former prime minister Friday and Anand Sharma Thursday evening.

    He spent around half an hour with Manmohan Singh.

    The meetings were termed courtesy calls on the senior opposition leaders.

    The interactions with senior opposition leaders are also being seen as an outreach exercise by the government ahead of the Parliament session.

    The interactions come days after Goyal was named the Leader of House in Rajya Sabha in place of Thaawarchand Gehlot who has been made the governor of Karnataka.

    The session beginning Monday would conclude on August 13.

    The government has listed 17 new bills for introduction in the session, including three to replace ordinances issued recently.

    BJP MPs are also expected to introduce private members’ Bills on population control and uniform civil code.

  • Rajnath Singh meets AK Antony and Sharad Pawar, briefs them on Ladakh border row with China

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday met Congress leader AK Antony and NCP chief Sharad Pawar and is learnt to have briefed them about the border row with China in eastern Ladakh as well as the current situation in the region, people familiar with the development said.

    The former defence ministers were also provided with some details about India’s military preparedness in the region during the meeting, which was also attended by Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and Army Chief Gen MM Naravane, they said.

    The meeting is seen as an effort by Singh to reach out to the Opposition ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 19.

    However, there was no official comment about the meeting.

    Earlier in the day, Leader of House in Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal also met opposition leaders, including Pawar and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

    Congress has already indicated that it will raise the border row with China in the Parliament.

    While Antony served as India’s defence minister from October 2006 to May 2014, Pawar held the post from June 1991 to March 1993.

    On Wednesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Dushanbe on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

    During the talks, Jaishankar firmly conveyed to Wang that prolongation of the existing situation in eastern Ladakh was visibly impacting the bilateral ties in a “negative manner” and rued that there was no forward movement since the disengagement in Pangong lake areas in February.

    At the meeting, the two foreign ministers agreed to hold the next round of military dialogue at the earliest to discuss all the remaining issues.

    There has been a stalemate in the disengagement process between the two militaries in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh after they withdrew troops and weapons from the Pangong lake areas in February following a series of military and diplomatic talks to resolve the standoff.

    The standoff at multiple friction points in eastern Ladakh began in early May last year.

    The two sides are now engaged in talks to extend the disengagement process to the remaining friction points.

    India has been maintaining that full restoration and maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas is essential for the development of overall ties between the two sides.

  • PMLA case: Anil Deshmukh’s wife submits documents sought by ED

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The wife of former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh on Friday submitted documents sought by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case registered against the NCP leader.

    Indrapal Singh, the lawyer of the Deshmukhs’, said the ED summons had mentioned that the documents demanded of Arti Deshmukh could be submitted by her authorised representative.

    “Accordingly, we submitted all the related documents in the ED office today (Friday),” Singh said, adding that the allegations against his clients were baseless and devoid of truth.

    Senior IPS officer and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had accused Deshmukh, then state home minister, of getting policemen to collect money from bars and restaurants.

  • ‘Uddhav government united, strong’: Ajit Pawar plays down Patole’s remarks

    By PTI
    PUNE: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that despite some statements made by state Congress chief Nana Patole, the latter’s colleagues Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan have clarified that the MVA government in the state was strong and working unitedly.

    Queried on whether Patole’s recent remarks pointed to lack of unity in the ruling dispensation, Pawar said such statements are made in closed-door meetings to boost the morale of party workers.

    “Even if such statements were made, other Congress leaders like Balasaheb Thorat and Ashok Chavan have clarified that the (MVA) alliance is strong and we all are working together. Even Patole echoed similar sentiments later,” he said, adding that the entire Congress party was working as one under the leadership of its chief Sonia Gandhi.

    Pawar refuted media reports that he had discussed this issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and also rubbished others which said the Zoting Commission report had indicted BJP-turned-NCP leader Eknath Khadse in a land deal.

    He added that the state government had not received the Zoting Commission report as yet.

    Asked on the BJP-ruled Pune Municipal Corporation passing a resolution to draft a development plan for 23 villages merged into it recently, Pawar said the PMC could take such a decision but it was for the state government to decide whether the DP will be made by the civic body or the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

    The state government had recently issued a notification appointing PMRDA as the “planning authority” for the 23 villages.