LS Polls 2024: Sharad Pawar was '50% ready' to join NDA, claims NCP's Praful Patel

NCP MP Praful Patel, who along with Ajit Pawar broke away with the MVA and joined the NDA government in Maharashtra, on Wednesday said Sharad Pawar had also agreed to join them but backed off at the last moment. Ajit Pawar, who served as deputy chief minister in the Uddhav government, carried out a vertical split in the NCP in July last year.  

Patel said Ajit Pawar and other NCP leaders took oath as ministers in the Maharashtra government on July 2. "On 15th-16th July, we met Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and requested him to join us. Later, Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar met at a businessman's residence in Pune. He was also 50% ready (to join the government). What is going on today is opportunism," the NCP leader said while speaking to news agency ANI.  

When asked why he backed off, Patel said Sharad Pawar always hesitated at the last minute. He said if Pawar had not hesitated, he would have been Prime Minister in 1996. "In 1996, when the Devegowda government was there, then Congress President Sitaram Kesri withdrew his support. At that time, Devegowda himself told me to ask Pawar saheb to take the leadership of the Congress - 'I (Devegowda) will resign and support him'. All Congress MPs were upset with Sitaram Kesri and Pawar saheb was the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. If he had taken that responsibility that day, Pawar saheb would have been the Prime Minister.   

Sharad Pawar-led NCP is part of the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) alliance that comprises Congress and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena. As part of the opposition poll pact, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) will contest 10 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress 17, and the Uddhav Sena 21 in Maharashtra.

Praful Patel said that nationally, the mood is set that Modi is the leader of the country. "Not only the Prime Minister but the leader of the country," he said, hinting that Modi will return as prime minister for the third term. "In Gondia, people in villages are happy with different government schemes. This is not the BJP of the past and this is not the India of the past. Modi ji has moved with the times. He has made sure that he includes every person in India in his schemes. This is no alternative name."

The NCP leader also slammed the opposition, saying the INDIA bloc does not have any plan for the country. He said he had gone with Sharad Pawar to the INDIA bloc's first meeting in Patna. "They meet for photographs, nothing else. What plan do they have? They have no plan. If there was a plan they should have presented it before the public. They should at least tell who they have who can contest against PM Modi," he said.