Some turncoat NCP MLAs have met Jayant Patil, says Sharad Pawar

Satara (Maharashtra), July 9 (PTI) Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said some MLAs from the breakaway NCP faction led by his estranged nephew Ajit Pawar have met his party's senior leader Jayant Patil.

Pawar senior was replying to a question here about the possibility of MLAs from the NCP led by Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister, returning to NCP (SP).

"I have not met anyone who left our party and now wants to join back, but I learnt that some of them met Jayant Patil," he told reporters.

Jayant Patil heads the Maharashtra unit of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Talking about his party's electoral symbol which is `man blowing turha (a trumpet-like traditional instrument)', Pawar said they faced many problems as some independent candidates were allotted `tutari' or trumpet as the symbol.

"In Satara, we had problems during the Lok Sabha election over these symbols....Now, this issue is before the court, a hearing is scheduled for the next week," he added.

NCP (SP) had claimed earlier that in Satara, where its candidate lost to his BJP rival, the confusion between the two symbols cost the former a significant number of votes.

Talking about the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra, Pawar said the people thwarted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attempt to take the country in the wrong direction during the Lok Sabha elections, and a similar mandate will be delivered in the state polls. PTI