BJP 'broke' NCP, Shiv Sena to be in power in Maharashtra: Rohit Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party MLA Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of party chief Sharad Pawar, on Monday accused the BJP of breaking the NCP and the Shiv Sena to remain in power in Maharashtra.

Speaking to reporters in Pune, the legislator claimed while leaders of other parties were pitted against each other, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was "enjoying" the developments.

A revolt by Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde and 39 other MLAs against the party leadership in June last year led to a split in the party and collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde later became the chief minister with the BJP's support.

On July 2 this year, Ajit Pawar led a split in the NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, and joined the Shinde-BJP government as deputy chief minister. Eight other NCP MLAs also took oath as ministers in the state cabinet.

Speaking on the developments, Rohit Pawar claimed the BJP has made a "very good ploy".

Balasaheb Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena to protect the 'Marathi Manoos' (sons of the soil) and their identity, but the BJP "broke" it, he alleged.

"Today, there is an anti-BJP atmosphere in the country, and to ensure no one talks about it and all big leaders (from opposition parties) remain busy (in sorting the rumblings within their parties), the BJP first broke the Shiv Sena and now broke the NCP," he further charged.

"We are pitted against each other and the BJP (leaders), sitting in the AC, are enjoying the show," said Rohit Pawar, the MLA from Karjat Jamkhed in Ahmednagar.

The NCP leader also said he feels the people of Maharashtra know "who broke the family and who broke the party", and they will not forget this fact.

"The people of the state, who have been seeing these developments, did not like the way the BJP broke two big parties in the state in order to get themselves to power in the state," he claimed.

Rohit Pawar further claimed "four-five" leaders around Ajit Pawar were trying to project the latter as the "villain" and putting all the blame for the party's split on him.

"Yesterday, in Nashik, there was no picture of Ajit Dada on hoardings (put up for Chhagan Bhujbal's rally in Yeola area)," he said.