Felt like laughing when I saw scene at Patna meet: Praful Patel

NCP leader Praful Patel said he felt like laughing after watching the scene at the recent meeting of 17 opposition parties in Patna.“I went to the joint opposition meeting in Patna with Sharad Pawar, and I felt like laughing when I saw the scene there,” Patel said at a meeting of the Ajit Pawar faction at Bandra's MET. “There were 17 opposition parties there, and seven of them have only one MP in Lok Sabha. There was one party that has zero MPs. They claim they will bring change,” he said.

When the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray was on the verge of collapse last year, all NCP legislators and ministers had requested Sharad Pawar to go with the BJP, he said. "When we could accept the ideology of Shiv Sena, then what is the objection in going with BJP?” he said.Patel said his party has decided to join the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra in national interest and the interest of the party and not for personal gain.

Ajit Pawar, leader of the breakaway NCP faction, wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as “NCP president” and staked claim to the party name and ‘clock’ symbol on Friday, two days before he joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government with eight party MLAs. In response, NCP founder Sharad Pawar filed a caveat with the ECI saying no order should be passed unless the poll panel takes note of his contention on Ajit’s petition. In his petition to the ECI, Ajit submitted: “I am NCP president, as such the party symbol should be allotted to me as per provisions of the symbol order, 1968.” On Wednesday, the elder Pawar said he led the “real” NCP and no one could snatch away the clock symbol.