Sharad Pawar's camp of the Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday took a jibe at the Ajit Pawar camp over a report in an RSS-linked Marathi weekly. The report published in the weekly 'Vivek' noted that public sentiments turned sharply against the Bharatiya Janata Party after it forged an alliance with the NCP that subsequently led to a poor show of the saffron party in the recent Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
Citing the report, the NCP(SP) said that the report was a subtle suggestion by the BJP for the NCP to leave the Mahayuti alliance, reported PTI.
NCP(SP) spokesperson Clyde Crasto said that the BJP is eyeing to win the upcoming assembly polls after defeat in the Lok Sabha elections but the saffron party realises the tie-up with the Ajit Pawar-led party is going to hurt its prospects, reported PTI.
"The fact of the matter is that the people of Maharashtra have voted largely in favour of the NCP (SP). The BJP is also trading cautiously in the whole issue because it wants to win the elections," Crasto said.
"But its alliance with deputy CM Ajit Pawar-led NCP is going to make them lose the elections, like in the Lok Sabha polls... the article in the weekly (Vivek) is one of the ways they are trying to distance themselves from Ajit Pawar and probably asking him to leave (Mahayuti) in one way or the other," he claimed.
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The NCP(SP) leader also maintained that the RSS-linked publication had written another article with similar contents a couple of weeks ago as well.
He also argued that Maharashtra voters have not accepted the BJP's alliance with the NCP and also the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.