Sharad Pawar Not Revealing Complete Truth About His Meeting With PM: Devendra Fadnavis

Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that it was Ajit Pawar who approached him for government formation in the state and claimed that his uncle and NCP president Sharad Pawar was also aware of the power-sharing deal. In an interview with India Today, the BJP leader said that he had spoken to NCP MLAs with Ajit Pawar and they told him that Sharad Pawar was also aware of the plan.

The NCP president had recently said that he was aware of talks between Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fandavis but never thought his nephew would go so far and form government with him. Speaking about Sharad Pawar's reported claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his daughter Supriya Sule a Cabinet birth in exchange of support in Maharashtra, Fadnavis said that a lot more about Pawar’s meeting with PM Modi was not yet known and will be revealed at the right time.

"(Sharad) Pawar is not revealing all details about his meeting with the PM. There are so many things which are not yet known which the PM will reveal at the right time. Sharad Pawar is saying only those things which are in his favour," Fadnavis said.

When asked about his hush-hush swearing-in ceremony with the help of Ajit Pawar, whom he had vowed to put behind bars, Fadnavis said, "We made the government because we had numbers then...sometimes in politics, you have to do things immediately so we did."

"Time will tell if what I did was wrong or right," he added.

"When you are singled out, you need to strike...you may call it a surgical strike. If someone cheats you, you need to stay relevant in politics despite having your values," the former Maharashtra CM said.

Accusing Shiv Sena of betrayal, Fadnavis said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra will fall under its own burden. "This government is an auto rickshaw government which will suffocate under its own burden. We never indulged in operation lotus. Shiv Sena cheated us. There was not a single instance when Uddhav Thackeray asked me something and I refused," Fadnavis said.