Sharad Pawar admits, "I knew Devendra Fadnavis & Ajit Pawar were in talks"; adds caveat

As political drama concerning government formation came to an end in Maharashtra, NCP chief Sharad Pawar broke his silence and said that he knew Ajit Pawar was in touch with Devendra Fadnavis. This comes soon after Sharad Pawar, on Monday, revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed  offer of "working toger,” however, Pawar rejected it. Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath on vember 23  morning as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, even though Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress had almost finalised ir alliance and named Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Ministerial candidate. 

Sharad Pawar’s revelations 

As per PTI, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has said "I knew Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were in talks, but speculation that I was aware of Ajit's political move is wrong”. After clarifying his stand, NCP chief added that Ajit Pawar was unhappy over  pace of discussions with Congress leaders for government formation and "tussle" for sharing power. Sharad Pawar also specified that he had never thought of aligning with Shiv Sena, because of ir strong sense of Hindutva. 

Read: NCP can't decide Dy CM? Jayant Patil points to Sharad Pawar; Ajit ready for anything

Sharad Pawar softens his stance on Ajit 

Answering questions in a measured manner, Sharad Pawar explained how re was a heated argument between him and a few of Congress leaders. However, he did t exactly narrate reasons for se arguments. Pawar said he didn't expect Ajit to act like way he did. "But re is a background to this development. re was a heated discussion between me and Congress leaders from Delhi at Nehru Centre on certain issues. For a moment, I thought I would t associate with this discussion and that I should t be involved in talks. Ajit was unhappy too and spoke to my colleagues on how we are going to work...re was a tussle over power-sharing," he said. 

Read: Sharad Pawar consented to Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra: Sources

He added that if Ajit Pawar wouldn’t have done what he did,  NCP would have taken a call on government formation after  conclusion of upcoming winter session of state legislature. However, he lastly asserted that " MVA government will last for entire five years. re is tussle over portfolios”, Pawar said state government will run as per Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and t on any ideology. 

(With PTI Inputs)

Read: Devendra Fadnavis rubbishes '40K crore funds moved' claims by BJP's Ananth Hegde

Read: Sharad Pawar weighs in on working with BJP vs with Shiv Sena; makes a big conclusion