New Delhi: Amid a political stalemate in Maharashtra over government formation, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar questioned Shiv Sena’s claim of support of 175 MLAs and asserted that the NCP will be sitting in the opposition in the assembly. He said that the only option in the state is a BJP-Shiv Sena government.


He dismissed the probability of NCP alliance with Sena and said, “Where is the question of a Shiv Sena-NCP government? They (BJP-Shiv Sena) are together for last 25 years, today or tomorrow they will come together again.”

He stressed that there is only one option in the present political scenario, which is that the BJP and Shiv Sena should form the government. There is no other option other than this to avoid President's rule.

Pawar said he had no clue about the figure of 175 MLAs, that the Shiv Sena has claimed having support of.

Asserting that the NCP and Congress will be playing the role of opposition he said, “Congress and  NCP have been given mandate to be responsible opposition."

He maintained that the BJP and Shiv Sena should form government as early as possible. “NCP would not have waited for so long, if they had the numbers for government formation,” he stated.

At the same time, he also expressed his disinterest in the post of Chief Minister, “I have been the Chief Minister of Maharashtra three times. I am not keen on the post again. BJP-Sena should form government as early as possible," he said.

On his meeting with Raut, Pawar said, “ He met me today and discussed about the upcoming Rajya Sabha session. There are some issues we discussed on which we can have a similar stand.”

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