Sharad Pawar had made up his mind in 2019 to form the government with BJP but had a “change of heart” after Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in with Devendra Fadnavis, senior NCP leader Praful Patel has alleged. In a scathing interview to CNN-News18, the senior Ajit Pawar group leader spoke elaborately on the sequence of events in 2019 and thereafter, noting the NCP’s flip-flops with BJP since 2014.
“I was party to several rounds of conversations with the BJP. We were discussing that we should come to power — in 2014 and 2019. In 2014, we had supported the BJP from outside. We got their Speaker elected even when they did not have adequate numbers,” Patel told CNN-News18 on the campaign trail in Bhandara.
“There was a change of heart. I don’t know why Sharad Pawar did so. This happened quite a few times,” he said, referring to the party’s possible alliance and thereafter backing off, at least two times.
Patel said the NCP’s alliance with Shiv Sena came as a shocker and added that the party was criticised the most by the then-Uddhav Thackeray led outfit. He said that the Sena’s stance during the riots after the Babri Masjid demolition and its divisive politics in Mumbai had been completely antithetical to the NCP’s position till then.
Even after the NCP joined the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the party was unhappy because of the way it was treated, Patel said. “The rank and file were not very happy with MVA. There was no partnership (with Uddhav Thackeray). We are talking of getting an equal political share. That wasn’t happening. So, we spoke with BJP,” he said.
When asked what Sharad Pawar said about the group’s decision to form an alliance with the BJP, he said, “A leader can have a change of heart. But there has to be appreciation of what the rank and file want. Today, the political landscape has changed. BJP is a different party from the Jan Sangh. It is inclusive. There has been no communal problem in the last 10 years,” he added.
When asked about the ideological differences with the BJP, he said: “If we can talk to the BJP in 2014 and 2019, then the ideological lines are blurred. We can’t talk of ideology alone.”
Launching an attack on Sharad Pawar, he said: “Pawar saahab did not rightly gauge the pulse of the party workers and the elected members last time. That’s a fact.”
Elaborating on the NCP’s decision to go with Shiv Sena in 2019, he said: “There was no reason why we should have tied up with the Shiv Sena and abandon a possible tie-up with BJP which we had already discussed with them in 2019.”
With inputs from News18