Amid disquiet in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s recent meetings with his nephew Ajit Pawar, the NCP patriarch on Wednesday rubbished claims of being offered a Union Minister’s post by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in lieu of deserting the INDIA Opposition bloc and the MVA, and allying with the BJP.
“I have openly said no politics was discussed at that meeting [with Ajit Pawar] nor was there any such discussion [on the offer of a post in the central Cabinet]. I have no idea what anyone is saying about it. There was no political discussion. I have never denied the meeting never happened, but as the head of the family, I speak to all its members,” Mr. Pawar said, speaking to reporters in Sambhajinagar.
He further said that while there were rumours that his MVA allies, the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), were planning to contest elections without his NCP faction, the reality was completely different, refuting suggestions of the Congress-Sena (UBT) having a “plan B” to contest sans his NCP group.
