'No alternative to him': Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar praises PM Modi

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said there is no leader like him. He said the country is marching ahead under PM Modi's leadership. "We have joined the government to support him," he said, after inaugurating his NCP faction's new office in south Mumbai. "There is no leader like Modi. There is no alternative to him," Pawar said.

This comes just weeks before the scheduled opposition meeting in Bengaluru. The opposition parties have been trying to stitch an alliance to take on the BJP-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Ajit Pawar was also part of that opposition untill he broke away from the ranks on Sunday to join hands with the NDA.

In Maharashtra, the undivided NCP was part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi - a coalition of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, and the NCP. The MVA had decided to fight the next assembly and parliamentary elections together. The NCP also attended Nitish Kumar's mega opposition meeting in Patna on June 23. However, NCP's national working president Praful Patel, who is now with Ajit Pawar, recently said it is difficult to form a grand alliance considering the inherent difference within the parties.

"I had been to Patna for the meeting of opposition parties. I saw what happened there. In the main opposition party Congress there is confusion about whether Rahul Gandhi is the leader or not. We don't know who runs that party," he said.

Patel also said that the country was developing under Prime Minister Modi and that his party leaders collectively decided to join the NDA. "The country has progressed under the leadership of Narendra Modi in the last nine years. I had been to Patna for the meeting of opposition parties," he said.

Dealing a major blow to Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar on Sunday took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and eight other NCP MLAs including Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil joined as ministers.

Praful Patel said that joining the Maharashtra government was a collective decision taken by the NCP for the development of the state and country "in view of the able leadership of PM Modi". "In Nagaland, we have supported NDA. We have supported the Maharashtra government to ensure the development of the state and to provide political stability," he said.