Mumbai, Nov 23, TEN Network | Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar has stabbed the people of Maharashtra in the back, said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday. Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath as the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra today.
Raut, while speaking to reporters in Mumbai, said that Ajit Pawar’s body language was “suspicious” during the meeting of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress leaders in Mumbai’s Worli on Friday evening.
“Ajit Pawar was in meeting yesterday. He wasn’t having eye contact during the meeting. His body language was suspicious. Then he left.midway saying that he has a meeting with a lawyer. His phone was switched off. Now. we know which lawyer he went to. He has backstabbed the people of Maharashtra,” he said.
Distancing himself and the NCP from Ajit Pawar’s move, his uncle and party supremo Sharad Pawar said that his support to the BJP is his “personal decision”.
The Shiv Sena leader also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe against Ajit Pawar to split the party.
“When Fadnavis was the CM, he had said that his (Ajit Pawar) place is in Arthur Road [jail]. Was the ED investigation used to split the party (NCP)? And, will the cabinet meetings happen in Arthur Road jail now?” Sanjay Raut said.
The ED in September registered a money laundering case against NCP President Sharad Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar, and several other politicians and officials in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) scam worth around Rs 25,000 crore.
Attacking Ajit Pawar, Raut said, ‘’People of Maharashtra will never forgive him. He will regret his decision of aligning with the BJP throughout his life.’’ The Sena MP also slammed the BJP and Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for misusing their power to form the government in Maharashtra.
The Sena-NCP-Congress were in talks to form a coalition government in the state and a final announcement on this was expected today. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar are expected to meet today over the turn of events.
Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar could address a joint press conference today, Raut said. (HT)
