“Had We Not Given Away Chief Minister’s Post…”: Ajit Pawar’s Big Claim

Mumbai:

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar took a veiled dig at his uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today, claiming that the state would have a chief minister from the Nationalist Congress Party “till date” had the party not conceded the top post to Congress after the 2004 assembly elections, when the NCP had more MLAs.

Addressing party legislators and other workers in Bandra, Ajit Pawar said, “In the 2004 Vidhan Sabha election, NCP had more MLAs than Congress. Had we not given the chief minister’s post to Congress at that time, till date, Maharashtra would have had a chief minister only from Nationalist Congress Party”.

NCP bagged 71 seats while Congress had secured 69 seats in the 2004 legislative elections.

While recalling a meeting in 2017 at Varsha Bungalow, Mr Pawar said, “On the orders of the senior leaders of the party, Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patel, I and several others had gone there. Several leaders from BJP were also there. There were discussions among us over cabinet portfolio allocation and positions of Guardian Ministers. But later our party took a step back”.

Defending his decision to join the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government, Praful Patel, who has sided with the Ajit Pawar faction, said, “What is the objection to going with Bharatiya Janata Party? When we could accept the ideology of Shiv Sena, then what is the objection to going with BJP? We have joined this alliance as an independent entity,” he said.

“Peoples Democratic Party Chief Mehbooba Mufti and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah went with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir and they are now part of the joint opposition,” he added.

In 2015, the BJP entered into an alliance with the PDP as no party could get a majority in the 2014 Assembly polls in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. However, in 2018, the BJP pulled out of the coalition government.

Mr Patel said they have joined the Eknath-Shinde government for the sake of the nation.

“I went to the joint opposition meeting in Patna with Sharad Pawar, and I felt like laughing when I saw the scene there. There were 17 opposition parties there, 7 of them have only 1 MP in the Lok Sabha and there is one party that has no MP,” he said, referring to the meeting held in Patna last month.

“They claim they will bring change… This decision (of joining NDA) we have taken is for the nation and our party and not for personal gain,” Mr Patel claimed.

The crisis in NCP is escalating with the two factions calling separate meetings today in a show of strength.

NCP suffered a split on Sunday with Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP government along with eight other MLAs.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)