Mumbai, Jun 21 (IANS): In a surprise development, Nationalist Congress Partys (NCP) Ajit Pawar on Wednesday vrtually pleaded with the party leadership to relieve him from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.

"I was never interested in taking up the post in the first place... I relented only because of requests from the legislators and I have handled the responsibility for the past one year," Pawar said while addressing the NCP's silver jubilee celebrations here.

However, he said that there have been murmurs in some quarters that he has not been strong or effective as the Leader of Opposition.

"So should I go and grab peoples' collars," he asked.

Pawar then urged the party leadership to take him off the coveted position of Leader of Opposition, and give him any other responsibility in the party.

"The party leaders have to take the decision... I don't want to continue as the Leader of Opposition. Instead, I request you to give me any position in the party and then see how I handle it," Pawar said.

He also slammed the Shiv Sena-BJP government on the occasion, accusing it of failure on all fronts, especially the law and order situation and the farmers' issues in the state, saying that the time has come for it to go.

Interestingly, two weeks back when NCP President Sharad Pawar reshuffled the party's top leadership, his nephew Ajit Pawar was not assigned any charge on grounds that he was very busy and doing well with the important duties as the Leader of Opposition.

Debunking speculations on this count, Ajit Pawar had also clarified that he was ‘not unhappy' at being left out of the party posts since he was always active in state politics and had been handling the Assembly responsibility.