‘Have we ever interfered'?: NCP (SCP) defends Sharad Pawar's felicitation of Eknath Shinde

Nationalist Congress Party (SCP) leader Jitendra Awhad hit back at Shiv Sena leaders who expressed displeasure over Sharad Pawar's felicitation of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and urged them to stop doing “politics.” The NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar had felicitated Shinde, who had split the Shiv Sena to ally with the BJP, with an award at an event organised by Sarhad, an NGO.

Pawar heads the reception committee set up by the organisers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the three-day Sammelan in Delhi on February 21. Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders, including Sanjay Raut and Aditya Thackeray, have criticised Pawar for honouring Shinde, whose decision to split the Sena had triggered a crisis within the then-ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Undivided NCP, Shiv Sena and the Congress were part of the alliance.