Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction aligned with BJP for fear of ED probe: Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Pawar slams rebel faction, says they defected to avoid ED probe. He urges party workers to rebuild NCP, stresses importance of social media. Criticizes BJP for misusing power, expresses concern over CBSE circular on Partition.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, taking aim at the rebel faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar, on Sunday rubbished their claim that they had aligned with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ensure Maharashtra’s development. He remarked they had defected fearing investigation by Central agencies.

Mr. Pawar was addressing his party workers at Pune, as part of a Statewide tour to rebuild his party following the split engineered by his nephew last month.

“Some of our colleagues, who have changed their party, claim they went there [to the BJP] for the sake of Maharashtra’s development. This is nonsense. Most of those who defected were facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe launched by the [BJP-led] Central government and were not ready to face that probe,” he said.

The NCP patriarch said that those from his party who had joined the BJP-ruled government were forced to speak from the BJP’s side on any question.

“They have been told that if you speak on our behalf, there is no problem. But if you do not, then we [the BJP] will send you somewhere else. Those who were afraid to face the probe went over to the other side,” he said.

Mr. Pawar observed that in stark contrast to the position taken by the rebel NCP leaders led by Mr. Ajit Pawar who joined the government, former Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh had faced jail for 14 months as he refused the BJP’s offer to join them.

“Anil Deshmukh flatly refused to join the BJP, saying he had not committed any crime. He refused to change his beliefs. The same with the editor of the Saamana [Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut],” Mr. Pawar said.