NCP chief Sharad Pawar addresses the media after meeting Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut. He said Raut often meets him and brushed off any undue importance to the meeting. When asked whether Raut approached him with a proposal for government formation, Pawar said, no. “We will not join hands with the Shiv Sena. We will sit in opposition,” he said. He added that the NCP will not provide outside support to any party.
He said he hoped both the BJP and Sena come to an understanding and it respects the people’s mandate and form government soon. Pawar said both Centre and Maharashtra government have failed farmers. “Centre must back farmers,” he said.
Pawar also confirmed he spoke to Sonia Gandhi on the situation in Maharashtra. When asked if the NCP was willing to form government, he quipped, “We don’t have the numbers or else we would have formed government. I have no desire to be Maharashtra CM again.” Sharad Pawar has served as the youngest CM of Maharashtra at the age of just 38.
He said both the NCP and the Congress would sit in Opposition.
The senior Shiv Sena leader had met the National Congress Party chief at his residence in Mumbai today.
On being asked about the purpose of the meeting, Raut quickly said that it was just a “courtesy meeting.”
“It was a courtesy meeting. He (Sharad Pawar) is a senior leader of the state and the country. He is worried about the political situation in Maharashtra today. We had a brief discussion,” the Shiv Sena leader said.
As the deadline for government formation in Maharashtra is fast approaching, Shiv-Sena is not ready to settle for any anything less than an equal share of power as Sanjay Raut on Wednesday outrightly denied the possibility of reaching any new settlement with BJP except the one (50:50) that was allegedly agreed upon prior to polls.BJP and Shiv Sena are engaged in a bitter tug-of-war with the latter refusing to soften stand on its demands for equal sharing of Cabinet portfolios and the chief minster’s tenure of 2.5 years. — ANI
