Owaisi targets Pawar for joining NDPP-BJP govt in Nagaland

On Thursday, Owaisi tweeted, “If ‘Sharad’ was ‘Shadab’ he’d be called Bteam [of BJP] and be an untouchable for ‘seculars’. I’ve never supported the BJP government and never will but this is the 2nd time NCP supported the BJP and it may not be the last.”

Opposition parties such as the Congress and Samajwadi Party have earlier accused Owaisi and AIMIM of being BJP’s B-team by splitting minority votes and thereby helping the saffron party.

Owaisi also reminded Pawar that BJP had sent Nawab Malik, senior NCP leader and then Cabinet minister in the erstwhile MVA government, in jail. And yet, he pointed out, the NCP has decided to support BJP.

Although Pawar’s decision in Nagaland has invited criticism from various secular fronts, NCP leaders are unfazed.

Earlier, Pawar had said that he had not struck any alliance with BJP. “In Nagaland elections, NCP was supporting the NDPP, led by Neiphiu Rio. The NCP is not having any alliance with BJP,” Pawar had asserted.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said, “Sharad Pawar is a national leader whose politics is known to all. He is secular to the core. No one has any reasons to question his politics.”

Political managers in NCP pointed out that the developments in Nagaland are “very different”. One party leader said, “The majority of NCP MLAs who won the elections hold the CM [Rio] in high esteem. If we don’t allow them to support him, the party will break.”