Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a revelation that snowballed into a political row in poll-bound Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said that business tycoon Gautam Adani was present during the talks between undivided NCP and BJP around five years back.
The statement by Ajit Pawar, who is now the NCP President after having taken control of the NCP party from his uncle and mentor Sharad Pawar, came during an interview to digital platforms.
The admission was vis-a-vis the government formation after the 2019 state polls, when Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena broke the 30-year-old saffron alliance and was in negotiations with the Congress-NCP Democratic Front.
After this, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, however, the government had collapsed within 80 hours.
“…don’t you know that? This happened five years ago. Everyone knows where the meeting took place…everyone was there. Let me tell you again…Amit Shah was there, Gautam Adani was there, Praful Patel was there, Devendra Fadnavis was there, Ajit Pawar was there and Pawar Saheb was there,” Ajit Pawar said.
When asked why Sharad Pawar did not cross over to the BJP-led NDA, Ajit Pawar said: “No one can tell what is on Pawar Saheb’s mind…neither aunty (Pratibha Pawar) nor (sister) Supriya (Sule).”
Asked about the ideological position, he says: “Don’t ask about ideology in Maharashtra…the entire politics of the state has changed. Everyone wants power here. Ideology has been sidelined for the sake of power.”
There were no immediate reactions on this issue from the BJP or the NCP (SP), which is now headed by Sharad Pawar, a four-time Maharashtra Chief Minister and three-time Union minister.
The Congress and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), however, gave sharp reactions to the issue involving Adani.
“Ajit Pawar made a big revelation that when Amit Shah was toppling the elected government of Maharashtra in 2019, Gautam Adani was also present in that meeting…And this is the same Gautam Adani to whom the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis-Eknath Shinde government gave land worth crores of rupees in Mumbai at a throwaway price,” said Supriya Shrinate, Chairperson of Social Media & Digital Platforms of Congress party.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi said: “As per an interview given to a digital platform by a senior minister in the cabinet, Gautam Adani has sat through in meetings to decide how to get BJP to power in Maharashtra by trying to fix unlikely alliances. It raises some serious questions: Is he a BJP authorised negotiator? Has he been given the responsibility to fix alliances? Why is a businessman so keenly and closely working to bring BJP to power at any cost in Maharashtra? Bol Dharavi Bol.”
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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