Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel of the Ajit Pawar faction stated those currently supporting Sharad Pawar had signed a letter in June of last year requesting the party founder to work with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the Maharashtra government.
On July 2 of this year, the NCP broke apart after Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-led and Bharatiya Janata-led Eknath Shinde government.
Patel said, Those who are currently with Sharad Pawar had signed a letter requesting him to join hands with BJP in 2022. When Shinde was in Surat and later in Guwahati, all 51 NCP MLAs, including some 15 ministers in the then MVA government, had signed a letter requesting Sharad Pawar to join hands with Eknath Shinde and the BJP.” “We at the time presumed (BJP leader and current deputy chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis would be chief minister. Surprisingly nobody talks about the incident of 2022, Patel said.
Responding to a question related to Sharad Pawar’s stand on the letter, Patel said, If the question is were we permitted to talk to the BJP, the answer is yes. Jayant Patil, then state president, made a call to Sharad Pawar. He (Patil) said we are going to meet Amit Shah. Patel claimed Sharad Pawar cautioned Patil against attracting media attention and suggested he (Patil) meet the Union home minister discreetly.