NCP leader Ajit Pawar suggests Congress allow Satyajeet Tambe to return

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar said the Congress should take back into its fold rebel leader Satyajeet Tambe  even as state Congress chief Nana Patole said the party high command will take a call on the issue.

Tambe on Thursday won the election to the Maharashtra Legislative Council from the Nashik graduates constituency after virtually rebelling against his party.

There is speculation that he might join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Tambe, former chief of the state Youth Congress, told reporters that he would announce his next course of action on February 4.

Meanwhile, in an interview to the Marathi newspaper Lokmat, Ajit Pawar said that NCP president Sharad Pawar had advised his Congress counterpart Mallikarjun Kharge that the Congress should field Satyajit instead of his father Sudhir Tambe from the Nashik seat.

The Congress, which had given ticket to Sudhir Tambe, the sitting MLC, was left red-faced when he did not file nomination and instead his son Satyajit contested as an independent. Both were subsequently suspended from the party.

To a question about whether Satyajit would join the BJP, Ajit Pawar said, His father and (senior Congress leader and Satyajit’s maternal uncle) Balasaheb Thorat will guide him. Satyajit’s three generations have had the Congress mindset.

The Congress should not escalate this further. It should have a big heart. He (Satyajit) should forget this last one month and resume work as a Congressman, the NCP leader further said.