Pune: Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has made a sensational claim that two years back itself the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was willing to come together with Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the coalition government.
"Even after the 2019 assembly elections, the NCP had given us a green signal when Shiv Sena was not ready to form the government with us. We had two meetings with the NCP out of which one I had personally attended. If the Supreme Court ruling had gone in our favour then me and Ajit Pawar's government would have survived definitely," Fadnavis claimed.
Fadnavis said, "Nobody thought that I would become Chief Minister in 2014, but I did. In 2019, everybody thought I would be the CM, but I did not become. We had fought the general elections together with Shiv Sena to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister of India, but later Sena rebelled against the BJP on a large scale during the assembly elections. I went for campaigning for the Sena candidates, but Uddhav Thackeray did not for BJP's candidates. In our first term, it never happened that I did not listen to Uddhav Thackeray. I was angry that I missed the Chief Ministership due to Shiv Sena, but then I recovered quickly. We have to understand that it is politics, after all."
"We had decided to call off our alliance with Sena over the issue of Chief Ministership during the 2019 general elections itself. Our party leader Amit Shah never gave the word to Sena that CM post would be given to them. I don't know from where Uddhav Thackeray got that word. I tried calling Thackeray, but he didn't respond to my call. I felt sad about that. I am sure that if we had a discussion, then we could have worked a way out. The way Thackeray is running the government today, that situation would have never arrived," Fadnavis said.
Speaking about the alliance with NCP, Fadnavis said, "NCP was willing to come together with BJP two years back itself, but the Prime Minister had said that we should not alienate Sena and that if NCP wants to come along, then all three parties will be together. That was the reason NCP did not come along with us then."
"When Sena refused to form a government with us, the NCP gave us an offer. NCP does not mean that directly Ajit Pawar gave us the offer, but the party head gave it. Later on, the party chief ruled out that possibility, but Ajit Pawar sent us feelers. When everyone betrayed us, we decided to strike back and conducted the oath ceremony with Ajit Pawar. The Supreme Court ruled against us and hence that government had to go, but if the ruling had been on our side, then the government would have survived till date," Fadnavis said.
