India, Nov. 17 -- There has been considerable unease in the Ajit Pawar-led NCP over the past few days. Many in the party are unhappy that most of the top leaders in the party did not come to the defence of Ajit's son Parth when he was caught in the Pune land controversy. While the deputy CM, expectedly, defended his son over the issue, vehemently denying any wrongdoing on the part of his son, the silence of most of the seniors in the NCP took party workers by surprise. A party minister pointed out that most of the senior leaders are a bit wary of Parth, who is increasingly taking an interest in the party's affairs and emerging as an important member of the top team. Any stray remark on the issue could mean trouble for them and hence keeping quiet or repeating Pawar's statements was the safe thing to do, according to him. Significantly, there is also talk in the party over a cold war between Pawar and a senior leader who had also played a role in splitting the original NCP. The leader is also not in favour of NCP joining hands with Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) for local elections. Curiously, as all 15 NCP candidates lost badly in the Bihar assembly elections, Ajit Pawar distanced himself from the same. They polled less than NOTA votes in Bihar and all its candidates lost their deposits. Pawar told mediapersons that he was not in favour of contesting the elections in Bihar as the party was not ready for the same. "I have no knowledge about contesting Bihar polls," he said curtly, a statement that surprised many. An interview given by BJP legislator Prasad Lad to a podcaster has become a talking point. In the podcast, Lad has spoken about his journey from his humble beginnings in Parel to a businessman with diverse interests such as banking, airport ground handling, housekeeping, hospitality and information technology. In the interview, he said his son has an interest in the hospitality sector and has one-third ownership of the popular Bastian restaurant of actress Shilpa Shetty. He also insisted that Bastian was their brand besides two other known restaurants in Mumbai. His daughter runs their IT company and has undertaken work for smart cities in various states from Odisha to Maharashtra. Lad is also seen in the BJP as one of the people close to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. He was also in the news for throwing his hat in the ring for Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) president's election but withdrew his candidature following a meeting between NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in which the latter supported the re-election of Ajinkya Naik as MCA chief. Following the Congress party's announcement that it will contest solo in Mumbai, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders are trying to figure out their calculations for the civic polls. In the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) did gain from its alliance with the Congress as the latter's traditional minority and Dalit votes went in favour of the Thackeray's faction candidates. The election of Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai as MPs from Mumbai south and south central seats respectively was not possible without Congress' traditional votes, party leaders admit. They were expecting a tacit understand with Congress on a certain number of seats where a chunk of Muslim-Dalit votes could help Sena (UBT) in a close fight with the Mahayuti candidate. However, no such understanding has been worked out so far which has irked Sena (UBT) leaders. To make it worse, Congress city unit chief Varsha Gaikwad trained her guns on Raj Thackeray which has not gone down well with the Thackeray faction. Pramod Patil, a loyal Congress worker, offered to buy a car for state Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal who has been travelling across the state in a bid to rebuild the party organisation. Sapkal rejected his offer and instead asked him to paint the party headquarters, Tilak Bhavan, at Dadar if the latter wanted to do something for the party. Patil did just that and got the two storey office painted. On Thursday, Sapkal and other senior leaders felicitated Patil to acknowledge his efforts....