Sharad Pawar always wanted Congress dropped, says Devendra Fadnavis

West Bengal CM and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee met Sharad Pawar at his residence at Silver Oak, Breach Candy, on Wednesday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis says since Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar has always wanted to drop the Congress, he is supporting TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's effort of keeping the Gandhi family-led party away from the proposed anti-BJP opposition front.

"Banerjee speaks directly. But Pawar speaks between the lines and conveys the same feeling that the Bengal CM has expressed about the Congress," Fadnavis said on Thursday, adding that Pawar wanted the Congress out from the very beginning, but has no option, at least in Maharashtra.

Devendra Fadnavis

"Banerjee has been saying Trinamool is the real Congress because the other one has lost it. She also says that she is the principal opposition. Actually, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been saying for a long time that the Gandhi-Congress is nowhere in the country's political scene," he added.

He said the Mamata-Pawar proposal proved that the Narendra Modi-led BJP would come to power again in 2024. "Similar experiments in 2019 failed miserably. People showed faith in Modi and they will do it again in 2024."

Fadnavis said as of now the Congress-related matter is an internal fight of the opposition. "Let them fight it. We will come into the fight much later."

‘Mamata disrespected national anthem'

City BJP leader Vivekanand Gupta has complained to the police seeking action against Banerjee for disrespecting the national anthem during her interaction with civil society activists at YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai on Wednesday.

He says in the complaint that the leader "started to sing the anthem while sitting, and thereafter stood up, and after four or five verses, abruptly stopped singing. It's an offence under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971 and the Ministry of Home Affairs order of 2015." Fadnavis said such behaviour was unacceptable from a chief minister.

Civil activist Anjali Damania has also objected to Banerjee's behaviour. "Mamata Banerjee had the cheek to sing the national anthem when she was sitting? And stopped half way? How dare she..." she posted on her Facebook wall.