Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rekindled an old row Monday, claiming that NCP chief Sharad Pawar was in the know about his nephew Ajit Pawar‘s short-lived defection to the BJP’s side in November 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, Ajit had stunned the state by popping up besides Fadnavis. The two had proceeded to take oath – Fadnavis as CM and Ajit as Deputy CM – before it all came crashing down within hours.
On Monday evening, speaking at TV9 Marathi channel’s ‘Maharashtra Cha Mahasankalp’ event, Fadnavis claimed that it was only after Sharad Pawar’s go-ahead that Ajit and he had proceeded with the swearing-in.
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Pawar hit back, denying Fadnavis’s claims. “I thought Fadnavis is a cultured and decent man, but he is resorting to lies,” he said.
At the TV channel event, Fadnavis said: “Uddhav Thackeray was holding discussions with the Congress and NCP… We had an offer from the NCP that they wanted a stable government and that we should form such a government together. We decided to go ahead and hold talks. The talks happened with Sharad Pawar… It was only after discussions with Sharad Pawar that we decided to form the government… It was the NCP which approached us.”
In the cat-and-mouse game following the results of 2019, first the Sena, a long-time ally of the BJP, fell out with it, apparently over who would get the CM’s chair, leaving the BJP without enough numbers to stake claim. Then, as the Sena strayed towards the Congress-NCP alliance, in a pre-dawn action, Fadnavis and Ajit took oath.
Pawar declared at the time that Ajit’s decision to join hands with the BJP was “personal”. “We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his,” he tweeted.
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In three days, as Ajit failed to get the required number of NCP MLAs with him, the Fadnavis government fell. Soon after, Ajit returned to the NCP, presumably chastened and “forgiven” by his uncle and the party supremo – after staying out of bounds for a couple of days, holed up at his brother’s house in Mumbai with his phone switched off.
The NCP said that Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule and other family members had held long deliberations with Ajit to “convince” him to not join hands with the BJP.
Asked during the interview whether the rebellion by Ajit had failed, Fadnavis replied: “Was it a rebellion at all?” He went on to praise Ajit, saying: “He was honest in his dealings, he didn’t do it with an intention to cheat us.”
At the same time, Fadnavis warned: “If Ajit Pawar says anything on this issue, I will make more disclosures.”
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Going on to speak about Uddhav, then the leader of the undivided Shiv Sena, Fadnavis said that he thought Ajit’s “betrayal” was small compared to what the Sena leader had done. “Uddhav Thackeray was under obligation to form a government with us, but he didn’t do that.”
Uddhav Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut accused Fadnavis of making these “mischievous” and “deliberate” statements to create a rift in the MVA. “If NCP chief Sharad Pawar was aware of it (Ajit changing sides) as Fadnavis is claiming, that means he (Pawar) took the BJP for a ride.”
There was another side to this, Raut pointed out. “If the oath-taking (of Fadnavis and Ajit) had not taken place, the President’s rule in the state would not have been lifted and the MVA government would have not been formed,” he said, adding that if it was all part of Pawar’s grand plan, it was characteristic of how the NCP chief was always one step ahead of the others. “I have already said that to understand Pawar Saheb, you have to take a hundred births,” Raut said.
Denying Fadnavis’s claims, state NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, “The Deputy Chief Minister has deliberately said this to start a new political controversy. He tried to bowl a googly but it was actually a no-ball. Fadnavis is saying this as the ground under his government’s feet is slipping.”
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Former chief minister and Congress leader Ashok Chavan said, “Why is Fadnavis making such a statement right at the time of the (BMC) elections? Pawar Saheb is a senior and mature leader. He would never do such a thing.”
During the interview, Fadnavis also claimed that the MVA government left no stone unturned to put him in jail. “The supari to arrest me was given to the then police commissioner. They were trying to do everything from preparing false documents and putting pressure to get false statements. Luckily, there were some officials in the Police Department who admired me and alerted me,” he said.
Fadnavis said Uddhav, the CM at the time, was aware of these bids to jail him.
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