After reporting feelings of uneasiness in his abdomen, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar was taken to the Breach Candy Hospital in South Mumbai, where he was diagnosed with a gallbladder issue. Pawar will undergo surgery for the same at the hospital, NCP leader and cabinet member of the Maharashtra government Nawab Malik announced via a tweet on Monday. "Our party president Sharad Pawar saheb was feeling a little uneasy due to a pain in his abdomen last evening and was therefore taken to Breach Candy Hospital for a check-up. Upon diagnosis it came to light that he has a problem in his gall bladder," Nawab Malik tweeted.
"He is on blood thinning medication which is now being stopped due to this issue. He will be admitted to the hospital on the 31st of March 2021 and an endoscopy and surgery will be conducted. Hence all his programmes stand cancelled until further notice," the minister added.
The development comes amid speculation that 80-year-old Pawar met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at a top industrialist's residence in Ahmedabad on Saturday. At a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday, Shah parried a query on the purported meeting, with the cryptic response that “everything cannot be made public”. Malik, whose party shares power in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena and Congress, had said no such meeting took place, adding there is an attempt to create confusion by spreading such rumours. The alleged meeting came in the midst of the controversy surrounding former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. On Sunday, Deshmukh said that Maharshtra CM Uddhav Thackeray has directed the allegations to be probed by a retired High Court Judge. Param Bir Singh’s letter came days after he was shunted from his post following the arrest of Sachin Waze in the Antilia bomb scare case.