36 DAYS A Political Chronicle of Ambition, Deception, Trust and Betrayal by KAMLESH SUTAR

Author:KAMLESH SUTAR [SUTAR, KAMLESH]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

After the 2014 assembly elections in Maharashtra, NCP had announced its unconditional support to the BJP, when the BJP–Shiv Sena alliance was called off. The political equations between Modi and Pawar have always been a topic of curiosity not just in Maharashtra but also in the national political circles. It was against this backdrop that Pawar was going to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

10, Janpath, New Delhi

Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi met for 50 minutes. The issues to be included in the CMP were not the agenda of the meeting; it was about what the Shiv Sena had to exclude. Shiv Sena’s hard-line Hindutva and the issues that the party had raised in line with its hard-line Right-wing agenda had to be dropped. Against the backdrop of the Ayodhya verdict, Uddhav Thackeray had announced that he will be visiting Ayodhya on 24 November. Sonia Gandhi expressed her strong reservations on this and it had to be communicated to Uddhav that his visit had to be called off.

After the meeting, Sharad Pawar, along with his party leader and MP Sunil Tatkare, addressed a press conference, where he dropped yet another bombshell. He informed the media that government-formation was not on the agenda of his meeting with the Congress President. ‘I just had a meeting with the Congress President and along with her, A.K. Antony was there. We discussed in detail about Maharashtra’s political situation. I have briefed her about the situation. After this briefing, we didn’t discuss other issues,’ Pawar said.

Pawar’s total denial of any concrete discussions with the Shiv Sena in government-formation was surprising for the journalists present there. It was strange that leaders from the three parties had addressed a joint press conference just two days ago announcing the draft of a CMP. In fact, the meeting had taken place at senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s office in Bandra.

‘BJP–Shiv Sena have fought together, we (NCP) and Congress fought together. They have to choose their path and we will do our politics,’ Pawar further said, raising the suspense even more. In sharp contrast to what Pawar said, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that NCP Chief Sharad Pawar met Sonia Gandhi to discuss the political situation in Maharashtra. Surjewala further elaborated that in the next couple of days the leaders of both the parties will hold a meeting in Delhi, where the current situation in Maharashtra will be discussed and a decision regarding the same would be taken.

Back in Maharashtra, Pawar’s stand had disturbed a few Shiv Sena leaders. So much so that some of them yet again suggested that rather than trusting the NCP, it would be advisable for the party to patch up with the BJP as it was the ‘known devil’. This wasn’t, however, the end of the capricious turn of events in Delhi. Minutes after Pawar denied any political discussion on government-formation in Maharashtra with Sonia Gandhi and a contradictory statement from the Congress, Pawar had his usual visitor at his Delhi house—Sanjay Raut.

Raut added to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.