Dy CM says NCP will wait if allotment of Cabinet slot is not immediately possible
Dy CM Ajit Pawar
A day after rejecting the BJP's offer for a junior minister's berth at the Centre, NCP (AP) president Ajit Pawar said that his party would get a Cabinet position in Narendra Modi's team within two months. He said by that time the party would have added two more Rajya Sabha MPs.
The NCP's non-participation in the Union Council of Ministers had raised speculations about an internal tussle within the party and neglect by the BJP. Opposition leaders said that the BJP was out to finish Ajit Pawar's party. Addressing the party's rank and file at the foundation day event in Mumbai on Monday, Pawar said that the speculations were not true.
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Asserting that the party that all was not lost and they should fight the adversity, he said, “PM Modi-ji told us that he wanted to give us a berth, but that of a minister of state with independent charge. He said there were other parties and Shiv Sena too was given an MoS (independent) post. We told him to hold it if giving a Cabinet berth was not possible. We also told him that we would stay with the NDA even without a position,” said Pawar.
The Dy CM said the media and his detractors misconstrued the situation. “Our ally leader Devendra Fadnavis told the media persons the facts,” he said, adding that he would get a Cabinet berth by mid-July/August. Pawar said in the coming months, the NCP would have two more Rajya Sabha MPs by by-elections. “Sunil Tatkare is our elected MP in Lok Sabha. He saved us an embarrassment by winning the seat. Our strength in the Parliament will increase,” he said.
According to information, the BJP has promised NCP a Rajya Sabha seat that its newly-elected Lok Sabha member Udayanraje Bhonsale will vacate. One more RS seat that BJP's Piyush Goyal holds will be up for grabs in the by-polls. Vacated in February by NCP's Praful Patel, the election to the RS seat will be held on June 25. Patel was re-elected in biennial polls to the Upper House the same month. The contestants from the NDA will have no difficulty winning the seats because of their majority in the electoral house of the state Assembly.
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