NCP to continue support to Cong in Maharashtra, UPA at centre

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday reaffirmed his party's support to Congress at the Centre and at Maharashtra, where a crisis has erupted in the wake of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's resignation.

"We continue to support the government in Maharashtra and Delhi, we do not want destability," Pawar told reporters here.

Asked whether Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan should go back to Delhi, where he was earlier a powerful minister in the PMO, Pawar said, "Whether Chavan should be there (as chief minister of Maharashtra) in Mumbai or Delhi is the internal issue of Congress, it is a prerogative of Congress and we have no view."

Asked whether the resignation of Ajit Pawar, a senior NCP leader, was to create pressure on Congress, he said, "(There is) no question of pressure creating."

The NCP supremo said "the NCP Legislature Party met earlier today and requested Ajit Pawar to reconsider his decision. It adopted a resolution that the final decision on the issue will be taken by the national president which will be binding."

On whether there was a sharp division in the NCP over the present issue, Pawar said, "It was a unanimous decision taken at the Legislature Party meeting.

"There was a demand that a white paper be published and certain issues were raised. He thought that he should step down and let the picture be clear before the people of the state," Pawar said.

The simmering tensions in the 13-year-old coalition came to the fore with the resignation of Ajit, 53-year-old nephew of the NCP chief following allegations of irregularities in irrigation projects during his tenure as water resources minister between 1999 and 2009.