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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
Abhijit Atre | TNN

Maharashtra politics: Devendra Fadnavis looked clearly unhappy, claims Sharad Pawar

PUNE: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday said dissident Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s appointment as the Maharashtra CM did not mean the end of the road for the Sena.

“Shiv Sena sampleli nahi. Sampanar nahi (Shiv Sena has not ceased to exist. It will not cease to exist),” Pawar said during a late-evening press conference in the city.

On being asked what was the MVA’s plan in the changed political scenario to stop the BJP’s expansion in the state, he said the alliance (of NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress) was yet to decide its strategy. He said, “BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was clearly not happy while taking the oath as the deputy CM of Maharashtra. But he is a Swayamsevak, and it is in their (RSS’s) culture to accept orders that come from above.”

Pawar recalled an incident in 1980 when he was leading a group of 67 MLAs in the state. “I had gone out of Maharashtra for some work. On my return, I found that 61 of them had rebelled against me. I was left with only six MLAs. In the next election, most of the 61 MLAs lost. But the MLAs supporting me grew to 76. People do not like such defections. When Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray goes to voters next time, they will support him,” he said.

Asked whose Sena will be termed as the “real Shiv Sena” in the state Assembly as Shinde had a backing of 39 party MLAs, Pawar said, “A party fields candidates for elections. They get elected as the party’s legislators. The term of the legislators ends, but not that of the party. The party is permanent, not the legislators.”

Pawar refuted reports that the Shinde group rebelled as the Congress and NCP MLAs were accorded “a more favourable treatment” in the MVA government.

As the mediapersons brought to Pawar’s notice that he had played a key role in the formation of the MVA government and sought to know why a seasoned politician like him failed to prevent its fall, he said, “I could have done something if the MLAs had stayed in the state. All the 39 MLAs were out of state. It became difficult to establish contact with them.”

Pawar said, “I would have congratulated Fadnavis if he returned to power by winning a majority in the house via state elections. But not this way.”

The NCP chief said the BJP was “misusing central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax” and added that he himself had received I-T summons. On reports that he had warned Uddhav a couple of months ago about the possibility of a rebellion led by Shinde, Pawar said, “I can’t tell the media what I told him.”

‘A lottery for Satara’

Recalling that the first CM of Maharashtra, Y B Chavan, was from Satara, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said, “I too have my roots in Satara. My family was originally from Koregaon there. Prithviraj Chavan is from Satara. And now we have Eknath Shinde, who hails from Satara and later shifted to Thane. So, it is a lottery for Satara."

'CMs worked as ministers'

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said there was nothing wrong in BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis accepting the post of deputy CM after having completed a full five-year tenure as the CM of the state earlier.

“There are many such examples, right from the late Shankarrao Chavan to Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar and Ashok Chavan," he said.

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