Forming govt with Ajit Pawar was a mistake, says Fadnavis
MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has described his teaming up with NCP leader Ajit Pawar to form a short-lived 80-hour government in the state in 2019 as a mistake, adding he does not regret it.
“I don’t regret it but we should not have formed such a government. This was a mistake,” the BJP leader said during an online interaction with editors of Marathi daily Loksatta.
On November 23, 2019, amid hectic parleys between the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to form a non-BJP government in the state after the polls threw up a hung Assembly, Fadnavis and Pawar were sworn in at dawn in a ceremony at Raj Bhavan.
“Even if this (forming the government with Ajit Pawar) was a mistake, when you are stabbed in the back, you have to stay alive in politics,” Fadnavis said, referring to Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray ‘reneging’ on the prepoll alliance with the BJP.
“To stay alive in politics you have to do whatever is needed to be done. So when you have been stabbed in the back, you have to give a befitting response,” he said. The decision to form the government with Pawar was a result of “mixed feelings” which included anger, he said. “So when an opportunity arose, we seized it. Now I can say that what we did was not at all liked by our supporters and the BJP supporters,” said Fadnavis.