Anil Deshmukh, the ex-home minister of Maharashtra, alleges that the Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been given supari (contract) by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to end the political career of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar.
Deshmukh, affiliated with the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, spoke at a press conference in Wardha on Thursday. The NCP experienced a division in July when Ajit Pawar and eight other party MLAs aligned with the BJP government and the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde in the state.
Do you know why he (Ajit Pawar) took a different path? The senior NCP leaders didn’t want to face the trouble I went through, said Deshmukh, referring to his arrest in an alleged corruption case. The NCP leader said the BJP has given supari to Ajit Pawar to finish the political career of Sharad Pawar. Replying to a query about Ajit Pawar’s supporters’ wanting to see him as the chief minister of Maharashtra, Deshmukh said he was not aware of what has been decided among the ruling partners in the state.
Deshmukh asserted that the entire state of Maharashtra and the nation are aware that Ajit Pawar and his associates swiftly joined the government following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address in Bhopal. Leading up to the NCP division, Modi had accused the party of being embroiled in a corruption scandal amounting to Rs 70,000 crore.