Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar yesterday hit back at nephew and rebel leader Ajit Pawar for claiming that the party had formed an alliance government with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra.
“There is no question of forming an alliance with the BJP. The NCP has unanimously decided to ally with Shiv Sena and Congress to form the government. Ajit Pawar’s statement is false and misleading in order to create confusion and false perception among the people,” the elder Pawar said.
His hard-hitting reaction came shortly after Ajit Pawar, who was suddenly sworn in as deputy chief minister on Saturday morning with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister, broke his silence and made a series of tweets thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and insisting he was still in the NCP.
Ajit Pawar also changed his status to ‘’Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra/ Nationalist Congress Party leader’’ – though he was sacked as the party’s Legislature Party head yesterday by the NCP.
“I am in the NCP and shall always be in the NCP and Sharad Pawar Saheb is our leader,” he declared.
“Our BJP-NCP alliance shall provide a stable government in Maharashtra for the next five years which will work sincerely for the welfare of the state and its people. There is absolutely no need to worry, all is well. However, a little patience is required,” he added.
Reacting to Ajit Pawar’’s tweets, Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil, who has been named the temporary Legislature Party leader, said “we are all the founding members of the NCP and flourished under the guidance of (Sharad) Pawar Saheb”.
“Pawar Saheb has taken the decision not to ally with the BJP in the interests of the state... Kindly respect his decision and return,” Patil said.
Senior leader Jitendra Awhad wondered “which NCP is Ajit Pawar referring to... The one headed by Pawar Saheb or some other...”
Earlier yesterday, the Supreme Court ordered the central government to produce by today morning the Maharashtra governor’s letter to Fadnavis to form a government in the state.
The court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to produce letters of the governor at 10.3am today. Mehta’s request for two days’ time was declined by the court.
On Saturday, Pawar senior said did not know if his nephew decided to support the BJP out of fear of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Ajit Pawar is among those named in the multi-crore Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB) scam case.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MP urged Maharashtra Governor B S Koshyari to ask Fadnavis to prove his majority within 24 hours, adding the Sena-NCP-Congress would prove their strength in just “10 minutes”.
“Why has the governor given the BJP such a long time (till November 30) to prove its majority? If he invites us, we can prove our strength in 10 minutes flat,” Raut said.
He said if they had the majority, then “what was the need to hold the swearing-in ceremony at the dead of the night, the chief minister of the state taking over when the people of the state are sleeping”.
The Sena MP said the BJP tried to break parties like Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress even before elections and now after the results are out, but “its ploy will backfire”.
“We have said from the beginning that we have the support of 170 MLAs... Now, with five MLAs missing, we have the support for 165 legislators in our camp. Write this down.”
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray speaks at a joint meeting of Sena and Nationalist Congress Party legislators as NCP chief Sharad Pawar and other leaders look on, in Mumbai yesterday.
