Ajit Pawar, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, stated on Tuesday that he did not feel pressured or forced to join the National Democratic Alliance, which is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. He further stated that his development philosophy is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goals.
In a candid conversation with the news agency ANI during which he shared his thoughts in the lead-up to his floating a rival NCP alliance with his loyalists and eventually joining the ruling NDA in the state as the deputy chief minister, Mr Pawar said, “There was no compulsion and neither was it compromise. I always think about development. Who is driving the country’s development today? It is PM Modi. I worked against him in 2014 and 2019 (Lok Sabha elections), but if you see today, and as PM Modi, himself said yesterday (on the campaign trail in Maharashtra), we accomplished the same amount of work in one year as was done in the 10 years under (former PM) Manmohan Singh. He has also been working for the upliftment and well-being of the poor and backward sections. In the last 10 years, not one allegation has been levelled against PM Modi.”
The nephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar launched a rival faction on July 2 of last year, which caused another seismic event in Maharashtra politics and led it to join the BJP-led NDA.
For the fifth time, Ajit Pawar took the oath of office as deputy chief minister.
He asserted that no one could challenge Prime Minister Modi in terms of popularity and leadership, and that the opposition bloc, India, lacked a prime minister.
“More than 65 per cent of people in the country are saying that they want PM Modi to return for a third term. There was a lot of talk around Nitish Kumar (rivalling PM Modi for the country’s most powerful post) in 2019 but he is with the NDA now. Presently, the Opposition has no one to take on PM Modi. There is simply no comparison between him and Rahul Gandhi,” the NCP leader said.
The deputy CM said the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ (alliance of the BJP, the Shiv Sena under Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar’s NCP) was formed to take the agenda of ‘development’ of the state forward.
“Everyone (in his NCP faction) took the decision (to join the NDA) collectively. It wasn’t motivated by a desire to be ministers but to take the agenda of the development of Maharashtra forward. I have said this time and time again that the decision was for the sake of development and nothing else,” Ajit Pawar said.
He added that people across the country have made up their minds to bring the BJP-led NDA under PM Modi back for a third term at the Centre.
“The people are giving a rousing reception to PM Modi wherever he goes. He has been asking the people to demonstrate their electoral support for his vision and agenda of development. He has been telling the people why they should vote for us. It’s clear that the people have made up their minds to bring him back for a third term,” the deputy CM said.
A total of 11 Lok Sabah seats in Maharashtra will be polling in the third phase on May 7.
Of the 48 seats, voting for 13 was completed in the first and second phases.
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