NEW DELHI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday claimed that the undivided Sharad Pawar-led NCP wanted to join the Mahayuti government when Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde joined hands with BJP in 2022.
While addressing a public gathering in Maharashtra’s Dindori, Ajit claimed that all NCP MLAs were ready and had even signed a letter agreeing to the party’s decision to join the coalition.
“All MLAs of NCP were then ready to join the Mahayuti government. All of them signed a letter, agreeing to the party’s decision to join the coalition in the interest of the state and its development,” Ajit said.
“Jayant Patil and Rajesh Tope, who are still there (with NCP-SCP), had also signed the letter,” he added.
This comes a day after Ajit, in an interview, claimed that industrialist Gautam Adani was part of political talks between BJP and the undivided Sharad Pawar-led NCP five years ago.
He was referring to discussions that happened just before he joined hands with BJP and formed a short-lived government with Devendra Fadnavis as CM and himself as deputy CM in 2019.
“Amit Shah, Gautam Adani, Praful Patel, Fadnavis & Pawar Saheb… All were there…,” Ajit Pawar said in an interview to Newslaundry.
Ajit, however, backtracked on his statement about industrialist Gautam Adani being part of political talks between BJP and undivided NCP five years ago. “My statement was misconstrued,” he said.
