Some NCP leaders wanted to align with BJP in 2019: Sharad Pawar in memoirs

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, May 3

Opposition veteran Sharad Pawar has revealed in his just-released memoirs that a section of the Nationalist Congress Party leaders were keen on a post-poll alliance with the BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra elections but he was personally not interested. This is Sharad’s first public acknowledgement of the well-known dalliance of nephew Ajit Pawar with the BJP.

Bhujbal bats for supriya as ncp chief

She (Supriya) has been doing well as an MP. So there will be no problem in deciding the new NCP president. Ajit Pawar should handle the state. This division of work is already there. Chhagan Bhujbal, NCP leader

Ajit had famously broken ranks with the NCP and taken oath of office as Deputy Chief Minister with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis after the 2019 state elections. The arrangement did not last and ultimately Sharad stitched together the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which came to power

Sharad in his autobiography Lok Majhe Sangati (People walk with me), which dwells on political developments after 2015, also sheds light on the much talked about meeting he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on November 20, 2019. “I met Prime Minister Modi and told him very categorically that there can be no alliance between the BJP and the NCP. But even as I was saying this to the PM, it must be noted that a section of NCP leaders wanted to go with the BJP,” Sharad’s book states, adding that the BJP had also hoped to ally with the then fledgling NCP during the time of late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The timing of the autobiography launch becomes significant in the wake of a persisting churn in Maharashtra politics, with Ajit still said to be in touch with the BJP to advance his chief ministerial ambitions and strike newer pacts.

That Sharad chose the day of his book launch to also announce his resignation as NCP chief and trigger a massive churn in the party is equally significant. The events indicate Sharad’s strategy to checkmate Ajit within the NCP, where a certain segment is still learnt be pro-BJP.

But with his resignation, Sharad has put a spanner in the works of this pro-BJP lobby for the time being, with the NCP uniting behind him.

Meanwhile, support came today for Sharad’s daughter and three-time Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule to lead the NCP should the veteran stick to his resignation instead of reconsidering as he has promised.

“She (Supriya) has been doing well as an MP. So there will be no problem in deciding the new NCP president. Ajit Pawar should handle the state. This division of work is already there,” NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said.