Maharashtra Assembly Polls: No post-poll alliance with Sena, says Pawar

Supriya Sule, NCP chief Sharad Pawar's daughter, seems pleased by the party's performance at the NCP office in Ballard Estate on Thursday. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Having almost single-handedly led the Opposition's fight against the BJP-Sena alliance, it seems like the controversy-ridden NCP Chief Sharad Pawar has pretty much resurrected his party in the state.

However, when asked about a possibility of a post-poll alliance with the Shiv Sena, he said that the people's mandate wanted NCP to sit in the Opposition and that they would follow this.

The NCP's comeback in Maharashtra comes on the heels of it winning a total of 54 seats in the 288-member legislative assembly, a tally that saw the Congress being relegated to fourth spot as the NCP took over as the main voice of the Opposition.

At a symbolic press conference held at his residence during the day, when early trends indicated that the saffron alliance would come to power in the state, Pawar, with Praful Patel by his side, said that the BJP-Sena's "220 ke paar" slogan had been rejected by voters.

He also said that "personal attacks" against him hadn't gone down well with voters, and took a dig at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by saying that he was unaware of the CM's astrology skills, which had prompted him to say earlier that Pawar's politics had come to an end in Maharashtra.

Speaking about the recent ED notice, which asked him to appear for questioning in connection with the PMC Bank scam, Pawar said that these were strong-arm "tactics" used by those in power. In fact, the ED even quizzed Patel for around 12 hours regarding his alleged links to gangster Iqbal Memon aka Iqbal Mirchi.

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