[ad_1]
Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar’s volte-faces on joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was among the main reasons that persuaded him to extend support to Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal told ThePrint Thursday.
“Sharad Pawar backed out from dealing with the BJP many times. He held not one, two or three but countless meetings with the BJP since 2014 but every time, he would turn back,” said Bhujbal, among the nine NCP MLAs who joined the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government Sunday.
The 75-year-old MLA from Yeola said blame for “unnecessarily making Ajit Pawar the villain in people’s eyes” rests with NCP founder Sharad Pawar.
Four-time deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar made waves Sunday when he, along with nine other NCP MLAs, extended support to the Shiv Sena-BJP combine. Pawar was sworn in as deputy CM for the fifth time and the nine MLAs who accompanied him, including Bhujbal, were inducted into Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Council of Ministers. In statements since, Pawar and members of his faction have claimed the support of 30 NCP MLAs.
The allocation of portfolios to the nine NCP MLAs who were inducted into the state cabinet, including Ajit Pawar, is yet to be determined.
Speaking to ThePrint Thursday, Chhagan Bhujbal reiterated that he had trusted Sharad Pawar to join hands with the BJP since the two first began discussing the possibility of an alliance ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra assembly polls.
“They (Pawar, BJP) first spoke in 2014 when it was decided that BJP would part ways with Sena and NCP should leave the Congress. And immediately after the BJP parted ways Sena, within an hour, we also walked out of our alliance with Congress and all four parties fought separately,” he said.
Bhujbal, a former deputy chief minister himself, added that he does not know what happened next but within days of extending outside support to the BJP government in the state, senior Pawar decided to do a turnabout.
“This happened not once, twice or thrice but multiple times. He (Sharad Pawar) decided to extend support to the BJP but didn’t. Even in 2019, Ajit Pawar was unnecessarily made the villain,” he said, referring to the early-morning swearing-in involving Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the wake of the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections. The tie-up did not last long and ended with the formation of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Chhagan Bhujbal also said that although now, he and the other NCP leaders who have extended support to Ajit Pawar are a part of the Maharashtra government, they continue to stand by the ideology of ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji, Shahuji Maharaj, Phule and Ambedkar’.
“We are a part of the government but also a separate party. We will stand by our views. But in the larger scheme of things, nationally speaking, we are a very small party,” he remarked.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Pankaja Munde says she won’t leave BJP, directs questions of ‘why she is overlooked’ to party
