BJP engineered splits in two political parties started by Marathi people, says Supriya Sule

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party engineered splits in two political parties started by Marathi people. 

Balasaheb Thackeray and Sharad Pawar founded their own political parties, and the Marathi people embraced and backed them. They both have roots in Maharashtra, and their umbilical cord is with the state’s people, said Sule.

On July 2, the NCP experienced a division into two factions when Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs decided to align with the Eknath Shinde government. In a similar manner, the Shiv Sena had a split in June of the previous year when Eknath Shinde rebelled against the then chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, leading to the downfall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The same invisible hand in Delhi, an apparent reference to the BJP central leadership, caused losses to these two political parties, said Sule, who is Lok Sabha MP from Baramati and also working president of the faction headed by Sharad Pawar. Attacking the BJP further, she said the party demoted the person who was chief minister of the state for five years. Devendra Fadnavis, who headed the government in Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019, was made deputy CM under Shinde by the BJP.

Without naming Fadnavis, the NCP leader said the former was further demoted after he was made to share the post of deputy CM. On July 2, Ajit Pawar became the second deputy CM in the Shinde government. Sule claimed investments were leaving Maharashtra and said it was a deliberate attempt to reduce the importance of the state and weaken it.