‘Felt like laughing when I saw…’: Praful Patel on Patna 'opposition unity' meet

Praful Patel referred to the recent opposition meet in Patna, saying he “felt like laughing on the scene there”.

Praful Patel on Wednesday defended he and other Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) rebels decision to join the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government.

Addressing the MLAs during the meeting at MET Bandra, Patel invoked the NCP supporting Shiv Sena to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition. “When we could accept the ideology of Shiv Sena, then what is the objection in going with BJP? We have joined this alliance as an independent entity. Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah went with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir and they are now part of the joint opposition”, he said.

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Referring to the recently held opposition meet in Patna, he added, "I went to the joint opposition meeting in Patna with Sharad Pawar, and I felt like laughing when I saw the scene there. There were 17 opposition parties there, 7 of them have only 1 MP in the Lok Sabha and there is one party that has 0 MPs. They claim they will bring change... This decision (of joining NDA) we have taken is for the nation and our party and not for personal gain."

Both Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar held separate meetings with the NCP MLAs on Wednesday. The meeting called by now deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar was attended by 31 of 53 legislators. On the other hand, NCP boss Sharad Pawar's meet was only attended by ten MLAs.

On Sunday, 63-year-old Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the NCP founded by his uncle Sharad Pawar 24 years ago. Ending months of suspense, the 63-year-old politician took oath as the deputy CM for the seventh time. Eight other MLAs including Dilip Walse Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and others took oath as ministers.

A day later, Sharad Pawar expelled Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare from the party for ‘anti-party activities’. In response, Patel announced the removal of state NCP chief Jayant Patil and appointment of Sunil Tatkare as the state party chief.

\Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar with NCP leaders Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal and others during the meeting of Ajit Pawar-led NCP, in Mumbai. (PTI)