Steps…so NCP leader slips away

NEW DELHI - Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar was in Panaji, but the party’s Goa chief Wilfred D’Souza managed to give him the slip.

D’Souza’s ‘inability’ to accompany Pawar to the inauguration of the party’s youth wing office and a subsequent press conference on the third floor of a building almost left the latter red-faced.

D’Souza has lately vented his ire at the NCP top bosses, including Pawar and Praful Patel, accusing them of ignoring him.

When the media asked Pawar about the conspicuous absence of D’Souza and his confidantes on the dais, Pawar quipped: ‘Our party president told us that he could not climb stairs to the third floor.

‘We permitted him to stay away.’