PM Modi and Sharad Pawar.
Credit: PTI Photos
Mumbai: Amidst repeated attacks by the prime minister during the 2024 election campaign in Maharashtra, NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar on Thursday said that he had helped Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
Modi was the chief minister from 2001-2014 before becoming the prime minister and heading the BJP-led NDA government.
Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra chief minister and ex-defence minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, was the Union Agriculture Minister in the Dr Manmohan Singh-headed Congress-led UPA government.
Talking to reporters, Pawar said that he had helped Modi tackle the agrarian crisis when the latter was the chief minister.
“He used to come to me with the problems of the agriculture sector and even took me to Gujarat. Once he wanted to visit Israel so I took him there. Whatever Modi says now I am not concerned,” said Pawar, the longest-serving Agriculture Minister.
Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel in July 2017.
In his rallies, Modi had been attacking Pawar, describing his party as 'nakli NCP' . Modi subtly called Pawar 'bhatakti aatma', without taking his name—the comment that has not gone down well.
“There is a ‘bhatakti aatma’ in Maharashtr. If it does not manage success it spoils others’ good work. Maharashtra has been a victim of it,” Modi has said in his Pune rally.
"Previously, under decades of Congress-rule, despite having an Agriculture Minister from Maharashtra, farmers were neglected. Under Congress rule, false promises were made; no resources were distributed to the needy,” he said, hitting out Pawar, in his Nashik rally.