'Gautam Adani Not Present At 2019 NCP-BJP Meeting': Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra's Deputy CM and NCP leader, said six meetings were held in different locations in 2019, including one at Gautam Adani's guest house.

File photo of Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar

Source : Ajit Pawar Facebook

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024: Deputy CM of Maharashtra and NCP chief Ajit Pawar told ABP News that Adani Group Chairperson Gautam Adani was not present at the meetings that took place before his stint in the government in 2019.

Ajit Pawar said that when he was made the Deputy CM in the BJP government in 2019, Sharad Pawar, Devendra Fadnavis, and several other leaders were present in the meetings, but Gautam Adani was not.

In the exclusive interaction with ABP's Chitra Tripathi head of the Maharashtra assembly elections, the NCP chief said, "If you work in Delhi, there are important meetings at different places in Delhi — sometimes it is at a guest house, at other times somewhere else. Once there was a meeting at Gautam Adani's guest house but he was never present in any meeting. Amit Bhai, Praful Patel, I was there; Devendra Fadnavis was there and so was Sharad Pawar. Save for one or two meetings, Sharad Pawar was mostly absent, though."

'NCP, Not Sharad Pawar Decided To Ally With BJP'

Ajit Pawar said that at that time the party had decided to go with the BJP. When asked if it was the party's decision or Sharad Pawar's, He said, "It was the party's decision. Sharad Pawar later allied with the Shiv Sena, before that he wanted to go with the BJP. This issue is not important for us right now."

When asked why Sharad Pawar suddenly withdrew his support to Ajit, he said, "I don't want to talk about it right now. This is not an issue in the upcoming elections. We have Mahayuati Vs Maha Vikas Aghadi and other independent candidates, who have formed somewhat of a third front. They are doing their own thing. According to me, this [2024 assembly election] is more important."

Ajit Pawar was also asked about Uddhav Thackeray's attack targeting that meeting. Thackeray had alleged that Adani's presence in those meetings was necessary to discuss the acquiring of projects like the Dharavi urban resettlement project. On this, Ajit Pawar said, "This is absolutely false. I want to tell the whole country that there were six different meetings, out of which one was held at a guesthouse. Adani was not there at all. He was not present in any meeting. Industrialists have no work in such meetings."