Sharad Pawar, MLAs were aware of Ajit's idea of Govt: Fadnavis

Mumbai: A day after Ajit Pawar has been given free-chit by ACB in the irrigation scam case, a new development has been surfaced.

Former CM Devendra Fadnavis in his interview with a TV channel said that Ajit Pawar had approached him seeking to form a government with the BJP and that his uncle Sharad Pawar, other party MLAs were aware of his plans regarding the government formation with the saffron party,

“Ajit Pawar came to me and said they did not want to form a government with the Congress, and that a government with three parties would not be stable. He said he had informed his uncle Sharad Pawar about his plans. In fact, he also told the NCP MLAs who were in contact with him that Sharad Pawar was aware,” said Fadnavis said.

In an earlier interview, NCP leader Sharad Pawar said he knew about Ajit meeting Fadnavis but said was not aware of the government formation idea.

“I can say that most of the MLAs were aware of it. Not only were they in touch with Ajit Pawar, but I also spoke to several of them myself,” said Fadnavis. He pointed out while their talks took final shape in 1-2 days, “such things do not happen in one day and some preliminary talks must have been there” claimed Fadnavis.

He also asked: “Can anyone force him to do anything? He came of his own will and there were many MLAs from NCP who were supporting him.”

When asked where Sharad Pawar was indeed aware of the deal between the two parties, to that Fadnavis replied you should be asking him.

“This you will have to ask Ajit Pawar. He told me he knew. I can only say that there were things behind the scenes and between the lines that will be revealed at an appropriate time.”

“There were things that happened before and during the meeting. It will be revealed at the right time,” Fadnavis said.

“Only time will tell if this was a mistake…We made a secret strike (ganimi kawa) which failed,” Fadnavis replied to the question whether their secret strike had an impact on Ajit Pawar.

“There is nothing wrong with taking a review but if you create an environment where big projects could be scrapped, how will major investors come to the state?” Fadnavis asked.

Reacting to Shiv Sena-Fadnavis-NCP coalition, Fadnavis said he did doubt about the new government.

“A coalition of parties with ideological differences has not lasted nationally. NCP can join anyone but Shiv Sena and Congress have strong ideological differences,” he reminded.

“It appears that Shiv Sena had decided from the beginning to go with other parties. In fact, an NCP MLA had said that after the elections, Sena-NCP and Congress would form the government,”he said.

“Later I realised they had decided to sideline BJP and go with other parties. But this is a betrayal of the people’s mandate,” said Fadnavis.

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