Indus Valley Times

New Delhi,Aug 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar did not get the chance to become the prime minister due to the “dynastic politics” of the Congress, sources told India Today.

The Prime Minister made the comments after the NCP witnessed a vertical split last month. Ajit Pawar and eight other party MLAs joined the Maharashtra government led by Eknath Shinde. Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

Earlier this month, Sharad Pawar shared the stage with PM Modi at the Tilak National Award ceremony in Pune. Pawar’s presence created a flutter among the Opposition, especially as the NCP is a part of the INDIA grouping that was announced last month.

During a meeting with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs from Maharashtra, PM Modi also said that Congress and Sharad Pawar did not promote many talented people due to nepotism, sources said.

Hitting out at the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, PM Modi said the BJP had not broken the alliance with them.

“Controversy was created without any reason. But we have endured. Sometimes, we took it for granted. On one hand, you want to be in power and on the other hand, you want to criticise. How can these two things go together,” sources quoted PM Modi as saying.

The Prime Minister made the comments in reference to the political scenario where there were disagreements between the BJP and Shiv Sena over the Chief Minister’s post after the results of the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

Subsequently, the Sena broke ties with the BJP and formed an unlikely alliance with the Congress and the NCP — known as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — before it collapsed in June last year.

He also told the NDA MPs that he cancelled the tickets of those who did wrong things while in power. He asserted that those people had apologised for their mistakes during election campaigning, according to sources.

PM Modi said despite the JD(U) (Janata Dal (United)) getting fewer seats (43) as compared to the BJP (74) in the 2020 Assembly polls, Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister.

The Prime Minister stressed that his allies were important in the NDA alliance and stated that everyone would live together and get respect.

He also said that the BJP was not arrogant like the Congress and asserted that the alliance would win next year’s Lok Sabha election, sources said.

-PTI