As Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced that he had decided to step down as the NCP chief, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut called him the “soul of Maharashtra politics” and likened his decision to the 'resignation' of Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

Taking to Twitter, Raut said, “Fed up by dirty Politics and allegations, Shivsena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray too had resigned as the Shivsena Pramukh. History seems to have repeated itself... But owing to the love of Shivsainiks he had to withdraw his decision...Like Balasaheb , Pawar Saheb too is the soul of the State's politics.” Raut’s party Shiv Sena (UBT) is a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi that also comprises NCP and the Congress.

Springing a surprise, Pawar on Tuesday said he was stepping down as the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the political outfit he founded and helmed since 1999. He made the announcement at the launch of a revised version of his autobiography. The announcement was met with protests by party workers and leaders who asked the octogenarian leader to rescind the decision NCP leader Anil Deshmukh, who was present at the meeting in Mumbai where Pawar announced his decision, said that the state and the country need “Pawar saheb”.

“There is an insistence by everybody that Pawar saheb remains as the chief of the party (NCP) and we have urged him to review his decision,” he told a Marathi news channel.

A four-time Maharashtra chief minister, who served as Union Defence and Agriculture minister, Pawar was instrumental in stitching together an unlikely coalition of the NCP, Congress and then ideologically opposite Shiv Sena to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

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