Sharad Pawar admits, "I knew Devendra Fadnavis & Ajit Pawar were in talks"; adds caveat

As the political drama concerning the government formation came to an end in Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar broke his silence and said that he knew Ajit Pawar was in touch with Devendra Fadnavis. This comes soon after Sharad Pawar, on Monday, revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed the offer of "working together,” however, Pawar rejected it. Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath on November 23  morning as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, even though the Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress had almost finalised their alliance and named Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Ministerial candidate. 

Sharad Pawar’s revelations 

As per PTI, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has said "I knew Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were in talks, but the speculation that I was aware of Ajit's political move is wrong”. After clarifying his stand, NCP chief added that Ajit Pawar was unhappy over the pace of discussions with Congress leaders for government formation and the "tussle" for sharing power. Sharad Pawar also specified that he had never thought of aligning with Shiv Sena, because of their strong sense of Hindutva. 

Read: NCP can't decide Dy CM? Jayant Patil points to Sharad Pawar; Ajit ready for anything

Sharad Pawar softens his stance on Ajit 

Answering questions in a measured manner, Sharad Pawar explained how there was a heated argument between him and a few of the Congress leaders. However, he did not exactly narrate the reasons for these arguments. Pawar said he didn't expect Ajit to act like the way he did. "But there is a background to this development. There was a heated discussion between me and Congress leaders from Delhi at the Nehru Centre on certain issues. For a moment, I thought I would not associate with this discussion and that I should not be involved in talks. Ajit was unhappy too and spoke to my colleagues on how we are going to work...There was a tussle over power-sharing," he said. 

Read: Sharad Pawar consented to Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra: Sources

He added that if Ajit Pawar wouldn’t have done what he did, the NCP would have taken a call on government formation after the conclusion of the upcoming winter session of the state legislature. However, he lastly asserted that "the MVA government will last for the entire five years. There is no tussle over portfolios”, Pawar said the state government will run as per the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and not on any ideology. 

(With PTI Inputs)

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