'No Compulsion Or Compromise...': Ajit Pawar On Switching Sides To NDA

On formation of Mahayuti alliance, Ajit Pawar said that the decision was taken not to make themselves ministers but for development.

Ajit Pawar joined the NDA last year in July

Source : PTI

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Tuesday that his decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA was under no compulsion or compromise. He said despite working against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 and 2019, he joined the alliance after seeing the developmental works done by Modi. 

"This is not a compulsion or compromise. I always think about development. Who is developing the country today? It is PM Modi," Pawar said in an interview with news agency ANI.

"I have worked against him in 2014 and 2019 but if you see today, PM Modi also said yesterday that we have done the same amount of work in one year as was done in the 10 years of Manmohan Singh. He also worked for the upliftment of the poor people," he added.

#WATCH | On his decision to join NDA, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar says, "This is not a compulsion or compromise. I always think about development. Who is developing the country today? It is PM Modi. I have worked against him in 2014 and 2019 but if you see today, PM Modi… pic.twitter.com/1HdnHEQ6q8

— ANI (@ANI) April 30, 2024

"In the last 10 years, no one has made even a single allegation against PM Modi...," Pawar said. 

The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party suffered a vertical split in July last year after nephew Ajit Pawar broke away from the ranks of the party with his loyalists to join the Eknath Shinde government. Ajit was rewarded with the post of Deputy Chief Minister alongside Devendra Fadnavis. 

On the formation of the Mahayuti alliance — including the Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party, and the Bharatiya Janata Party — Pawar said that the decision was taken by everyone for development. 

"Everyone has taken this decision together and it was taken not to make themselves ministers but for development," Pawar said, adding, "I am saying again and again that everyone has taken this decision for development."