Mumbai: The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) condemned the Centre’s decision to revoke Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, in Par-liament, but the reactions of local leaders in Maharashtra have, interestingly, been exactly the opposite.

Taking a completely different stand than his party chief, NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has welcomed the revocation of Article 370. In fact, he went a step further asking, the Centre to take over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) too.

Ajit Pawar, in a tweet, said, “The Centre has taken a good and historic decision by repealing the Article 370. The move was necessary to ensure the unity of the country. Now they should take over the PoK by acting cautiously. The people of the country will definitely stand behind. There should not be any politics in this (sic).”

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday had expressed disappointment that the Centre had revoked Article 370 without taking the state’s people and leaders into confidence. The former defence minister had said, “I can name Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mehbooba Mufti, Omar and Farooq Abdullah who have always taken a stand to stay with India. They should have been taken into confidence and it would have looked a wiser decision. We will have to see whether it is a final solution, or the beginning of large-scale outrage in the Valley.”

Congress leader Milind Deora too was cautious in his reaction while commenting on the Centre’s move. He had tweeted on Monday, “Very unfortunate that Article 370 is being converted into a liberal vs conservative debate. Parties should put aside ideological fixations & debate what’s best for India’s sovereignty & federalism, peace in J&K, jobs for Kashmiri youth & justice for Kashmiri Pandits.”

On Tuesday he tweeted, “Abolishing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution could well be dubbed Modi Sarkar 2.0’s demonetisation moment. For the sake of peace & development in Jammu & Kashmir, I hope this decision plays out more favourably than demonetisation did.”

According to political observers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had caught all Opposition parties off guard on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. According to them, the general perception among the people about the move has been good. Hence the Opposition has been very careful in commenting on the issue for the fear of labelled being anti-national.