Mumbai, Apr 22: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said he announced support for the BJP after the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls to wean away the Uddhav Thackeray-led (undivided) Shiv Sena from the saffron alliance, a task in which he claimed he succeeded.
Speaking to Marathi news channel ABP Majha in Amravati, Pawar said the aim of the exercise was to keep BJP away from power.
Asked about the intrigue surrounding his overtures to the BJP at the time, Pawar said. “I never had any plan to go with the BJP. I wanted to keep it away from power after the 2014 assembly polls. I only announced extending NCP support to the BJP but did not so in reality.”
“The plan was to steadily separate Shiv Sena from the BJP. I succeeded in it. Uddhav Thackeray and I are campaigning together in the state now. It is not in the interest of the country to give power in the hands of the BJP,” Pawar added.
The BJP had won 122 seats and was well short of the 144-halfway mark in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly after the 2014 polls. The BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena, allies for several decades, had contested the 2014 polls separately.
Amid a deadlock over government formation, Pawar at the time had said the NCP would give unconditional support to the BJP. The Shiv Sena joined the Devendra Fadnavis government a month later but the two allies continued to spar over a host of issues.
The Shiv Sena and BJP parted ways after the 2019 assembly polls, despite the alliance having a majority in the House, over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial tenure equally.
President's Rule was imposed in Maharashtra after no party could form a government, before it was swiftly removed in November 2019 and Fadnavis and NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as chief minister and deputy CM, respectively.
