NCP meet underway to pick Sharad Pawar's successor

A key meeting of top Nationalist Congress Party leaders is going on at the party's south Mumbai office to choose its next president.

As the meeting was underway, several NCP workers wearing caps with the message 'I am with saheb' demanded that NCP president Sharad Pawar reconsider his decision to step down as party chief.

A committee of senior NCP leaders, including Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule, former Union minister Parful Patel and Chhagan Bhujbal, began its meeting a few minutes before 11 am to decide on who will lead the party following their chief Sharad Pawar's decision to step down earlier this week.

Pawar on Tuesday sprang a surprise by announcing his decision to quit as president of the party he founded and headed since 1999 when he left the Congress to chart his own political course.

The announcement, made at an event, stumped leaders and workers of the 24-year-old party.

Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP and one of the stalwarts of the Opposition, had said he was stepping down as NCP chief but was not retiring from public life.

The announcement came amid speculation that Ajit Pawar and some MLAs may join hands with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, though the former deputy chief minister has refuted such talk by claiming he will be with the NCP till he is alive.