Anil Deshmukh.
Credit: X/@AnilDeshmukhNCP
Wardha: Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh said that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been given 'supari' (contract) by the BJP to end the political career of NCP founder Sharad Pawar.
Deshmukh, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), was addressing a press conference in Wardha on Thursday.
The NCP split in July after Ajit Pawar and eight other party MLAs joined the government of BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in the state.
Deshmukh said the whole of Maharashtra and India knows that Ajit Pawar and those with him hurriedly joined the government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Bhopal.
Days before the split in the NCP, Modi had accused the party of being involved in corruption of Rs 70,000 crore.
“Do you know why he (Ajit Pawar) took a different path? The senior NCP leaders didn’t want to face the trouble I went through,” said Deshmukh, referring to his arrest in an alleged corruption case. The NCP leader said that the BJP has given 'supari' to Ajit Pawar to "finish the political career" of Sharad Pawar.
Replying to a query about Ajit Pawar’s supporters’ wanting to see him as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh said that he was not aware of what has been decided among the ruling partners in the state.
“However, he (Ajit Pawar) is being sidelined from decision-making by the BJP in the government,” he added.