NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, on Sunday said his party decided to become part of the Eknath Shinde government for the development of the country, and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
Maintaining that there was no split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he said they would contest all the future elections on the NCP’s name and symbol. All the elected representatives (of the party) have supported the decision to join the government, Pawar said.
Defending his decision to share power with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, “If we can go with the Shiv Sena, then we can go with the BJP as well. The same thing happened in Nagaland as well.” “Overall and comprehensive development was taken into account. We have a vast experience of the administration, we can utilise it for the good,” he said.
Heaping praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pawar said his decision to join the BJP-Sena government was for the development of the country. “The country is progressing under the leadership of PM Modi. He is also popular in other countries. Everyone supports him and appreciates his leadership. We will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections with them (BJP) and that is why we have taken this decision,” he said.
“In the last two and a half years when we were in power, we decided that we would focus on development…A lot of people will try to criticise us, we won’t respond to them and focus on how to take the state ahead,” he further said.
The cabinet portfolios will be announced in a couple of days and we will immediately start working on it, Pawar said. Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister on Sunday, while eight MLAs of the party took oath as ministers in the Shinde-led government earlier in the day.
