NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, in a recently held interview by ABP News, claimed that though his party has aligned with the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra state but when it comes to issues of National Interest, it will always back the BJP.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goieoR5Ct9Y]
When the interviewer asked the rationale behind why Pawar chose to side with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra instead of the BJP which would have augmented his stature in the politics, provided his party with cabinet ministers, the NCP chief responded, “We always had good relation with the BJP. If tomorrow an issue of National Interest comes up, we will support the BJP. We have political differences and that’s why we went with the Shiv Sena party.”
However, the news interviewer posed a counter-question asking Pawar the reason for aligning with the BJP in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Pawar replied that he did not want the two parties-BJP and Shiv Sena to come together at that time as their alliance would have had a detrimental effect on the fortunes of the NCP and therefore to this end, his party extended their support to the BJP at that time. “If BJP and Shiv Sena had come together, it would have made it tough for our party and therefore I did not want them to enter into an alliance,” Pawar said.
Recently, after about a month of struggle over the government formation in Maharashtra, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis had taken oath as the chief minister of state with the support of NCP and Ajeet Pawar sworn-in as the deputy chief minister. However, within 48 hours, Pawar backtracked and extended his support to the alliance of Shiv Sena and Congress.
Uddhav Thackeray was selected as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance while the deputy chief minister post is with the NCP. It is rumoured that Ajeet Pawar is the frontrunner in the NCP for taking oath as the deputy chief minister. Congress was given the position of Speaker which was granted to Gandhi family loyalist Nana Patole.
