In 8 Years, NCP Wanted To Join Hands With BJP Thrice, Claims Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar, who won today's show of strength hands down, said Sharad Pawar changed his mind about joining the BJP in 2019 after the Nationalist Congress Party had five rounds of meetings with them. The party MLAs again wanted to join the NDA last year when the Shiv Sena split. "I want to ask the NCP MLAs present if this isn't true. I have a copy of the signature of all MLAs that we had done… I don't know why I am being made a villain," he said.

Referring to the time after the 2019 state elections when Shiv Sena parted company with the BJP after a tussle over the Chief Minister post, Ajit Pawar said, "We had five meetings with BJP to form the government and all of a sudden, I was informed that there won't be any alliance with BJP, we will go with Shiv Sena".

Last year when Eknath Shinde rebelled against the Shiv Sena, all the NCP leaders wanted to join the BJP, he further claimed.

"We did sign a letter too. We all asked Sharad Pawar to accept our stand and said there will be issues in our constituency otherwise. A committee of Praful Patel, Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil was made to speak to the BJP," he said.

But he was dissuaded from going by Sharad Pawar as "the media would come to know", Ajit Pawar said. "Later, the senior said speak on the phone," added the 63-year-old, who managed to gather 29 of the party's 53 MLAs under his banner today.Some of the MLAs appeared to have switched sides and are supporting Sharad Pawar, who ended up with 17.

The MLAs have been made to sign affidavits in view of the pending battle at the Election Commission, which Ajit Pawar approached today, claiming the party name and the poll symbol.

Ajit Pawar also claimed that there was an earlier instance when the party was open to allying with the BJP.

"In 2017 too we had a meeting at Varsha Bungalow. On the orders of the senior leaders of the party, Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil, I and several others had gone there. Several leaders from BJP were also there. There were discussions among us over cabinet portfolio allocation and positions of Guardian Ministers. But later our party took a step back," added Mr Pawar, who in a surprise move, had taken oath as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde government on Sunday.