As the NCP seeks to make a fresh entry in Goa, a verbal duel has broken out between the Sharad Pawar-led party and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis, who is in charge of BJP affairs in Goa, had ridiculed Pawar’s efforts to forge an alliance with the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the coastal state, where polling will be held on February 14.
“A party does not gain a national footprint by simply including ‘Nationalist’ in its name. Though it is called the Nationalist Congress Party, in fact, the party is confined to western Maharashtra,” he told reporters. NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Supriya Sule and Nawab Malik hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and asked him to exercise restraint while speaking about Sharad Pawar.
NCP chief spokesperson Malik reminded Fadnavis how the veteran leader had prevented him from returning as chief minister after the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections. Hinting at the end of the BJP leader’s political career, he wrote on Twitter, “If he continues to speak like this, Sharad Pawar will not hesitate to show him the Ghats of Kashi.”
For the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Fadnavis had famously declared that the era of Sharad Pawar’s politics was over. He had said, “The era of Sharad Pawar ji’s politics is over. The kind of politics he used to make and break (parties) is over now. Such politics will not work. Generations have changed, people have changed. Don’t accept such politics anymore.” , After the Shiv Sena pulled out of the alliance with the BJP after the 2019 Maharashtra elections, Fadnavis took over as the chief minister along with NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the deputy chief minister. However, the arrangement barely lasted for three days as Sharad Pawar ensured that none of the NCP MLAs supported the government. Fadnavis had to resign as chief minister within 80 hours and Ajit Pawar also returned to the NCP. Sharad Pawar then resorted to an unlikely alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to stop the BJP, the largest party in the assembly, from coming to power.
Fadnavis has missed no opportunity to take a dig at Sharad Pawar, who has equally hit back. Last month, Fadnavis had ridiculed the NCP’s attempt to portray its chief as the prime ministerial candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Fadnavis had said, “NCP has been dreaming about this since its inception, but it will not cross 10 seats.”
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