Thackeray was made sacrificial goat by Cong, Sharad Pawar: Bhagat Singh Koshyari

“It was NCP’s Sharad Pawar and the Congress, which offered him the chief minister’s post and made him a sacrificial lamb. I feel sorry for Uddhav Thackeray.”

Explaining his decision to not accept the list of 12 candidates sent to him by the Thackeray government to be nominated as members of the Legislative Council, Koshyari said, “The CM wrote a five-page letter listing do’s and don’ts. At the end it said that I should sign it within 15 days or earlier. The matter was referred to court. There is no constitutional provision where a government can dictate terms to the Governor. Generally, a CM writes four-line letters. Wonder who was the CM’s advisor… But more shocking was that they had leaders like Sharad Pawar who is well-versed in rules.”

On Thackeray’s decision not to allot a government plane to the Governor, Koshyari said, “Thackeray deboarded me from the plane… destiny pulled him down from the CM’s chair.”

Koshyari maintained that he had not done any wrong in swearing in Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister and Ajit Pawar as his deputy in 2019.

On November 23, 2019, even as the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress tried to rustle together a coalition to stake claim to form the government after the Assembly election results were inconclusive, Fadnavis proceeded to take oath as CM and Ajit as the deputy CM before it all came crashing down within hours.

Koshyari said, “A night before, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar presented me with a list of members who were supporting them. They assured me that they had majority. I believed Fadnavis had the majority. How can I be at fault? After all, Ajit Pawar is a senior and able NCP leader. When he pledged support, I had to take his words seriously. Moreover, a majority is always proved on the floor of the state Assembly. It is never proved in front of the Governor or the President. I don’t think I did anything wrong in calling Fadnavis for the early morning swearing-in.”

“Although the Maha Vikas Aghadi kept saying they were forming the government, their leaders did not furnish letters of support till the last minute. I strictly went by rules,” he added.

Asked why he resigned before completing his term as the Governor, he said, “I have completed more than three years as the Governor. I had accepted the responsibility entrusted to me by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. When the PM was in Nagpur last December, I conveyed my wish to resign as Governor, which was accepted.”