Sharad Pawar leaves Pune hospital after two-day stay, heads to Mumbai to rest

Veteran leader Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and a former Union minister, was discharged from Ruby Hall Clinic in Pune on Wednesday, November 4, after two days of treatment. He left the hospital by car for Mumbai.

Medical sources said Pawar is now fully well, and doctors have asked him to rest. He had fallen ill while on a tour to assess drought conditions. Reports differ on the exact complaint. One account says he developed a cough and felt tired, while another says the heat and a sudden spell of rain changed the weather, leaving phlegm in his chest and making him weak. Either way, the tour and all his other scheduled programmes were called off, and he was taken to hospital.

Doctors began treatment at once and ran a number of tests. They had advised two days of rest, and once his condition stabilised he was allowed to go.

Pawar was brought out of the hospital in a wheelchair. Party workers and office-bearers had gathered outside, and he raised his hand towards them. A photograph of the moment has since gone viral. He then got into a car. His wife Pratibha Pawar and MP Supriya Sule travelled with him. Sule had come to the hospital to take him home. Before leaving, she thanked the doctors and the entire staff with folded hands.

There had been talk that Pawar would first go to his home in Baramati, but he chose to head directly to Mumbai. He will go to his residence, Silver Oak, where on the doctors' advice he is to rest for eight days, with Sule staying by his side. Sources said he will resume his drought assessment after Diwali.

Sources also said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Pawar to ask after his health after he was admitted.