Opposition leaders dial Sharad Pawar, lash out at BJP over Ajit’s switchover to Shinde govt

The sudden switchover of NCP leader Ajit Pawar to the Eknath Shinde-led government has created a flutter in political circles with leaders from Opposition parties dialing party supremo Sharad Pawar to offer support.

Those who called up Pawar included Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former presidents Sonia and Rahul Gandhi as well as Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, reports said.

“CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi has spoken to Sharad Pawar over the phone and discussed the situation and extended support to him. Earlier Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi spoke to Sharad Pawar,” Congress general secretary KC Venugopal told reporters.

Also read: Maharashtra CM Shinde mocks Opposition for ‘predicting’ his govt’s fall

Not an elected govt: Congress

Accusing the BJP of orchestrating the split, Venugopal said the government was not an elected one, but an “ED-facilitated power grab”.

“The BJP’s dirty tricks department is working on overdrive in Maharashtra. This is not a legitimately elected government, but and ED-facilitated power grab. The Maharashtra government is a product of corruption and sin. The people have very well identified the traitors, corrupt and compromised leaders of Maharashtra and each of them will be taught the lessons of their lifetime in the next elections,” he said.

Congress leader and party’s communication head Jairam Ramesh used the “washing machine” analogy to hit out at the BJP, stating that leaders who were earlier deemed corrupt have now been given a clean chit.

“Clearly the BJP’s Washing Machine has resumed its operation. A number of new entrants into the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra today had been facing serious corruption charges with ED, CBI and I-T authorities after them. Now they have all got a clean chit. The Congress will intensify its efforts to free Maharashtra from the clutches of the BJP,” Ramesh said.

Ramesh also questioned what kind of example of good governance the ruling party was trying to set by making Ajit Pawar, against who it had instituted corruption probe, the Deputy Chief Minister.

Also read: NCP moves disqualification notice against Ajit Pawar, 8 others; says he’s not backed by 36 MLAs

TMC’s Derek O’Brien said the Opposition will fight the “traitors” and the BJP in 2024 and defeat them.

Several Opposition parties like the DMK and RJD said that Ajit Pawar doesn’t have the same heft and clout as Sharad Pawar and the party will survive the split as the cadres will not support the former.

“The Prime Minister may say a hundred things but what he actually wants is an Opposition-free democracy. Agencies like the ED, IT, CBI are used to ensure that political decisions are changed. Look at the ministers who took oath today. They were facing raids till the other day. It is a testimony of the politics of the prime minister and the priorities of his party,” RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha told Indian Express.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of trying to retain power at the cost of the poor, while stating that Maharashtra is just one of the political “experiments” of the saffron party ahead of the 2024 elections.

Hitting out at the BJP for “engineering defections” when the country was in the midst of crises like that seen in Manipur, CPI(M)’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury, however, exuded confidence that the latest development in Maharashtra is not enough to shake the Opposition unity.

“That will be there. This is their pastime. They have done it in Goa, in Madhya Pradesh, in Karnataka, in the North East,” Yechury said.

Also read: Happy that PM Modi has absolved some NCP colleagues of corruption: Sharad Pawar

Ajit Pawar’s defection spells trouble for the Opposition unity just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the Maharashtra Assembly polls later next year.

The NCP was playing a key role in bringing the Opposition together to take on the BJP government in the 2024 General Elections. In fact, it was Pawar who made the announcement that the next meeting of the Opposition will be held in Bengaluru on July 13 and 14.

Praful Patel, who joined the Eknath Shinde government along with Ajit Pawar was among the attendees at the mega Opposition meet in Patna on June 23.

While Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, asserts that there is no split in the party while claiming that a majority of MLAs are in support of the Eknath Shinde government, the NCP has rubbished the claims saying the party isn’t supporting the BJP in any form.