Maha: Mungantiwar Backs Fadnavis Over Statements On Pawar, Points To NCP Chief's Political 'Reputation'

Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday said Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar had even made a list of cabinet portfolios and district guardian ministers as part of his plan to form a government with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the 2019 Assembly polls.
     
However, Pawar dropped the plan right at the last moment, Mungantiwar claimed.
     
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently said Pawar was aware of plans to form a BJP-NCP government in the state, to which the latter had remarked that "certain things" were undertaken to show to what extent the BJP could go to obtain power.
     
Fadnavis and NCP's Ajit Pawar formed a government post the 2019 Assembly polls but it lasted for just 80 hours, after which the latter went back to the Sharad Pawar-led party.
     
"Going by the reputation of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, one can easily trust the claims by our leader Devendra Fadnavis about the November 2019 swearing-in ceremony. As per our information, Pawar had even decided who would become the ministers and had distributed district guardian minister responsibilities," Mumgantiwar told reporters.
     
"Sharad Pawar's reputation is well known. Even before I entered politics, people used to say about his politics as looking at one thing and aiming at another. In 1978, Pawar parted ways with chief minister Vasantdada Patil and became CM. He then returned to the Congress and then again walked out in 1999 (to form NCP)," Mungantiwar said.
     
Pawar joined hands with the Congress and Shiv Sena to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Mungantiwar said, adding that the BJP never thought Uddhav Thackeray would betray its ally of several years.
     
He said Thackeray, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, had spoken about his party rotting in the alliance with the BJP, but he still tied up with the latter ahead of the Assembly polls that year.
     
The senior BJP leader also claimed the Congress was not sure about joining hands with the Shiv Sena but 29 out of its 44 MLAs said the party must do so or else it would be finished.
     
"All three top Congress leaders, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, and Priyanka had opposed this move to join hands with the Sena. There was a lot of uncertainty," he claimed.