'Won't Repeat My Mistake': Sharad Pawar Apologizes To Voters For Trusting NCP Rebel Chhagan Bhujbal

Sharad Pawar has said that it was a mistake to trust Chhagan Bhujbal, but assured people that he won't repeat his mistake.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday apologised to his supporters for  "letting them down". He said that he trusted the wrong people and assured the people that he won't repeat his mistake. "This rally is not for making any allegations against anyone. I came here to apologise to all of you [people in Yeola]. My decision was wrong, you trusted me and voted for my party. But my decision [of having Chhagan Bhujbal as an MLA from Yeola] failed. So, it is my duty to apologise to you. Next time when I come here, I promise I won’t repeat the mistake," Sharad Pawar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Sharad Pawar had earlier said that all the rebel NCP MLAs will be disqualified. He also responded to Praful Patel's allegations that he gave all powers to his daughter Supriya Sule, saying that party workers wanted Supriya Sule to come to politics, and hence, she fought Lok Sabha polls. "She even won," he said. "We gave Union Minister post to Praful Patel for 10 years. He lost the Lok Sabha election and after that, we gave him a Rajya Sabha seat," Pawar further said.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narvekar sent notices to MLAs of Uddhav Thackeray and CM Eknath Shinde factions of Shiv Sena, seeking their reply on the issue of disqualification. Notices were sent to 40 MLAs of the Shinde faction and 14 of the Uddhav camp, Assembly Speaker Narvekar said. This came just days after the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena approached the Supreme Court, seeking directives to the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to promptly resolve the pending disqualification petitions against MLAs from both the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction and the Thackeray faction.