'Felt Devendra Fadnavis is Cultured, Gentleman': Sharad Pawar Slams BJP Leader

New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday (February 13, 2023) slammed Devendra Fadnavis for claiming that he backed the dramatic exercise of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader teaming up with NCP's Ajit Pawar in an overnight coup to form a short-lived government in Maharashtra in 2019. The veteran leader stoutly denied Fadnavis's claim and said he never thought the BJP leader will base his assertion on "falsehood". 

"I felt that Devendra is a cultured person and a gentleman. I never felt that he will take recourse to falsehood and make such a statement," Pawar said.

Earlier, Fadnavis had said that BJP received an offer from the NCP that they needed a stable government and that the two parties should form a government together. 

"We had an offer from the NCP that they needed a stable government and we should form such a government together. We decided to go ahead and hold talks. The talks happened with Sharad Pawar. Then things changed. You have seen how things changed," Fadnavis said during an event organised by a news channel, referring to Ajit Pawar quitting the government 80 hours later. 

"In all fairness, I want to state that Ajit Pawar took the oath with me with honesty... But later on, their (NCP's) strategy changed," Fadnavis added.

The BJP had won 105 seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, while the Shiv Sena, which was in an alliance with the saffron party, got 56 seats. 

Despite having enough seats to form a government together, the two allies bickered over power-sharing "who will get the chief minister's post being the bone of contention" resulting in the Shiv Sena negotiating with Congress and NCP instead. However, with no outcome in sight then, the Centre imposed President's Rule in Maharashtra on November 12. 

The Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP then continued negotiations to form an alliance "Maha Vikas Aghadi" with Sharad Pawar later announcing that Uddhav Thackeray had been unanimously chosen to head the new government. 

However, the early morning oath-taking ceremony of Fadnavis (as the Chief Minister) and NCP leader Ajit Pawar (as Deputy Chief Minister) on November 23 surprised everyone.

The ministry lasted three days, after which Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister.