Once Nationalist Congress Party founder-President Sharad Pawar steps into the field, the rebels who broke away on Sunday won’t know what has hit them, party state chief Jayant Patil warned on Wednesday.

“A small trailer of this was already shown to the people of the state earlier this week in Kolhapur and Pune… They are forgetting that the ordinary workers of the NCP are still with Saheb. Whatever Pawar Saheb says is the final word for us,” he said.

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Patil said that it is indulging in the politics of stealing and splitting parties in the state and elsewhere for their own benefit.

“When they don’t like the questions or issues we raise, then they rob us and break us. First they did it with the Shiv Sena (of ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray), now it’s happening to the NCP,” he said.

Training guns on the rebels led by Pawar’s nephen Ajit Pawar who have quit the NCP to join the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government, Patil demanded how they could join hands with those who had insulted icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and others.

“First you had criticised them for abusing these great personalities. But now you have joined those very people, so how will you face the masses…” he asked.

Referring to the BJP for lampooning the Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena as an ‘autorickshaw’ government, Patil quipped that since the (MVA) three-wheeler was running very well, now even they are forced to sit in an ‘autorickshaw’ to run their regime properly (with Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction joining the government).

“For 25 years, Pawar Saheb has grappled with all challenges, he fought when the NCP was sought to be broken many times in the past. We feel bad for all those who grew with the party and have left us now,” he said.

He contended that of the claimed 40 MLAs who have joined Ajit Pawar, “many are calling up Pawar Saheb and say they want to return soon, they are at sea without Pawar”, and ditto is the situation with the Shiv Sena MLAs who left with Eknath Shinde, who want to return to the Shiv Sena-UBT.

Referring to Ajit Pawar finger-pointing that he (Patil) had been the state NCP President for over five years, Patil said that if he had expressed his desire privately, “I would have immediately stepped down in his favour”.

Raising the historic slogan of ‘Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna ab hamare dil me hain, Dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qatil me hain’, Patil asked the enthusiastic gathering to take an oath.

The assembly took the oath in the name of god and under the leadership and Presidentship of Sharad Pawar, all would work the NCP till their last breath, they would not support the deserters, will not do anything that will sully Pawar Saheb’s ideology and remain loyal to him and the party for their entire life.