NEW DELHI: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar on Monday revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered him to “working together” with BJP during the recent turmoil in Maharashtra, but he refused the offer.
Pawar made the disclosure in an interview with Marathi news channel ABP Majha.
The NCP chief told that during meeting on November 20, days before nephew Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP, PM Modi said he will be happy to work together with him but Pawar made it clear to PM Modi that it is not politically possible for him.
The NCP chief said that he had told Modi that he has good relations with him, but their “working together was not possible”.
“Modi had offered me to work together. I told him that our personal relations are very good and they will remain that way but it is not possible for me to work together,” Pawar was quoted a leading news agency as saying.
As per media reports, Pawar”s daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule was offered a ministerial berth in the Union Cabinet, and there was even speculation that he was offered the President”s post.
After the Shiv Sena split from its long-time ally BJP over the issue of a rotational Chief Minister, the Sena, Pawar”s Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress had started discussions on a common minimum programme. But in the midst of this, Pawar had set off speculation by meeting the Prime Minister.
However, it was Pawar who took the initiative for the Sena-NCP-Congress government, and even convinced an initially-reluctant Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi to give her consent.