BJP Wanted To Tie Up With NCP Post 2019 Election, I Said ‘Not Possible’: Sharad Pawar

The NCP supremo said that taking a cue from the strained relation that NCP had with Congress at the time, the BJP might have thought of tying up with his party.

New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said that the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted an alliance with his party post 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, but Pawar refused and told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that “it was not possible.”

Pawar was speaking at a book launch by local Marathi daily, Loksatta, which marked his 81st birthday. “It is true that there was a discussion about an alliance between our two parties. The Prime Minister said we should think about it…However, I told him right in his office that it was not possible and I would not like to keep them in the dark," said Pawar in an article by Indian Express.

Pawar recalled that after the Assembly election, he had made a “mischievous” statement that NCP was seriously contemplating support from BJP. “This probably sowed doubt in the mind of Shiv Sena, which stepped forward for an alliance with Congress and NCP,” he said. 

The NCP supremo said that taking a cue from the strained relation that NCP had with Congress at the time, the BJP might have thought of tying up with his party. “Since we were not getting along, BJP might have thought about an alliance with us.”

The 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election was contested by BJP, Shiv Sena as one team, and Congress and NCP as the other. While the BJP had emerged as the single largest party after the polls, the party could not form its government as the Shiv Sena parted its way over Chief Minister’s post.

Pawar acknowledged that poll verdict of states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh play a decisive role in national politics.