Mumbai: Ajit Pawar tries to clear the air over ‘secret’ meeting

While his uncle Sharad Pawar is battling doubts raised by opposition bloc partners, nephew Ajit Pawar said their ‘family' meeting in Pune wasn't secret, and there was no need to derive any other meaning.

"Pawar saheb has told you very clearly that I am his nephew and he is the elder of the family, so we meet. I am not denying that we met, but that wasn't a secret as you have reported. It is wrong to talk about it in a different way," he said in Kolhapur where he attended the Independence Day celebration as the government representative.

Ajit hoped that there would be no confusion and political talks when they met again for festivals, family events, Diwali, etc. The latest partner of the Shinde-Fadnavis government asked whether someone spotted him discreetly entering the family friend's Koregaon Park bungalow. He denied that he was in the black sedan that hit the gate and was spotted carrying a passenger, who attempted to hide while leaving the lunch venue.

Also read: No confusion in MVA over Sharad Pawar meeting Ajit: Ambadas Danve

The deputy chief minister said the Chordia family had invited him, his uncle and others for lunch. "Our families know each other for two generations. Atul Chordia's father was my uncle's classmate." The said meeting has created an unrest in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress did not appear to be satisfied with Pawar senior's clarification that he would never go with the BJP and that the meeting with his nephew was a family affair that could not be a matter of news.