The move – being seen as Pawar laying the ground for Sule to take over the party mantle – could lead to a direct confrontation on decision making of the party’s Maharashtra unit as by and large Ajit Pawar, the opposition leader in the state assembly, has been calling the shots in the state unit till now.

The development comes days after Ajit’s coup to get the party ready for a tieup with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.

This is the first time in NCP’s history that the party is having a working president for the national unit.

Pawar made the announcement in Delhi on Saturday during the NCP foundation celebrations of the party completing 20 years.

Party insiders said Ajit was aware of the changes beforehand.Even so, the decisions taken by Pawar including handing out more responsibilities to party leaders like Sunil Tatkare and Jitendra Ahwad among others would hurt Ajit as barring him other senior NCP leaders seem to have been given more responsibilities. Patel has been given the responsibility of the party machinery in states like Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and Goa, while Sule has been entrusted the responsibility of Maharashtra, Haryana, and Punjab as well as planning for the Lok Sabha polls.

“Probably he (Sharad Pawar) wanted to bring up a new leadership, I too was not aware of this,” Patel said after Pawar made the announcement.

Incidentally, a large number of NCP MLAs in state owe allegiance to Ajit and the elevation of Sule could mean that a faceoff between the two is not too far away.

For now, there is silence from the camp of Ajit Pawar who was present when Pawar made the announcement in Delhi.

Ajit has been on the backfoot ever since his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar announced his resignation as party president early last month, only to take back the resignation three days later on demand from senior and mid-rung party leadership.

Earlier in April, there were rumours and some reports that Ajit along with a majority of NCP MLAs will join BJP, which he denied later.

Some party leaders said NCP leadership is likely to go for more changes within the party organisation by bringing in loyalists of Pawar and Sule in mid-rung leadership roles.

“A plenary session in the next few months could see some more changes so that Pawar could further tighten his hold over the party,” an NCP leader said on condition of anonymity.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said the NCP leadership had done injustice to Ajit Pawar. “Both Chhagan Bhujbal and Ajit Pawar have not been given any new positions or responsibilities, both of them have not been given their due…,” he said.