Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was keen on a post-poll alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 2019, but its party president Sharad Pawar made it clear to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that there can be no truck with the saffron party.
In his revised autobiography Lok Majhe Sangati, which focuses on events post-2015, released on Wednesday, Pawar also admitted that there were informal talks between some NCP and BJP leaders after the 2019 assembly polls in Maharashtra when there was uncertainty over government formation.
BJP started exploring whether there could be any possibility of an alliance with the NCP, but I was not involved in the process. This was only BJP's desire and there were no formal talks with the BJP. But there were informal talks between select leaders from the two parties, Pawar wrote.
He said since the NCP had little interest, it decided not to go with the BJP. It was necessary to state this very clearly to the BJP. Accordingly, he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the winter session of Parliament in November 2019, Pawar wrote in the book.
NCP leader met Modi on November 20, 2019, and apprised him of farmers' distress in Maharashtra when President's rule was imposed in the state. Pawar then had refused to comment on what transpired between him and Modi as there was uncertainty over government formation in the state and the NCP, undivided Shiv Sena and Congress were in talks of an alliance.