Sharad Pawar breaks his silence on Raut-Fadnavis meet, sees no threat to MVA government

Breaking his silence on the meeting between Sena MP Sanjay Raut and BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Tuesday stressed that there was no threat to the Maharashtra government. He recalled that Raut had taken his interview for Sena mouthpiece Saamana. Noting that there was nothing unusual in an editor taking the interview of Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, Pawar advised against drawing any political context to the meeting. 

Both Raut and Fadnavis have insisted that their interaction which lasted for at least 2 hours on September 26 was focused only on the modalities for the Saamana interview. In fact, the Sena MP clarified that party chief Uddhav Thackeray was aware of the meeting. According to BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye, Fadnavis demanded that the interview should not be edited. The interview is scheduled to take place after the culmination of the Bihar polls. 

NCP chief Sharad Pawar remarked, "Raut first took my interview. After completing my interview, he himself said that he would take the interview of Uddhav Thackeray and BJP leader. Just because an editor takes an interview of a political leader for a newspaper, it doesn’t imply that the former aligns with that political party. There is no need to comment further on this. He will take the interview. But it will not impact the politics of the state."

Read: Kailash Vijayvargiya Dismisses Politics In Raut-Fadnavis Meet: 'I Keep Meeting Digvijaya'

Maharashtra BJP chief's prediction

Earlier in the day, Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil predicted mid-term polls in the state. Reiterating that no political discussion took place in the meeting between Raut and Fadnavis, he added that the purpose was to go over the questions to be asked in the interview. Clarifying that there is no proposal to form a government with either of the MVA parties, Patil claimed that the Sena, NCP and Congress would eventually break the alliance.

To buttress his point, the Kothrud MLA highlighted the divergent stand by the ruling coalition partners on issues such as the farm bills. While the Congress had staunchly opposed The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Shiv Sena took a different position on these bills in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The MVA government was formed in November 2019 under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray after the Sena and BJP had a bitter fallout over the demand for the rotational CM post. 

Read: Congress And NCP 'upset' With Raut-Fadnavis Meet; Sharad Pawar Meets CM Uddhav : Sources

Read: NCP's Memon Lumps CM Uddhav Into Curious Take On Shiv Sena MP Raut's Meeting With Fadnavis