Veteran politician Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced that he had decided to step down as president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
“I have three years tenure remaining in Rajya Sabha. I will not contest elections henceforth,” Pawar also announced.
“I started my political career on May 1, 1960. Yesterday we celebrated May day. After this prolonged political career, one must think about stopping somewhere. One must not be greedy,” the NCP chief, who founded the party in 1999, said at the launch of the second edition of his autobiography, ‘Lok Maze Sangati’.
Sharad Pawar recommended that a committee comprising senior NCP leaders be formed to decide the future course of action.
“The committee will include, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, P C Chacko, Narhari Zirwal, Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujabl, Dilip walse-Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Jaydev Gaikwad and chiefs of party frontal cells,” he said.
Following his announcement, several NCP leaders and workers chanted slogans demanding that Pawar reverse his decision.
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