Mumbai: A lot has been said and written on the happenings ‘behind the curtains’ last year before the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Indian National Congress party came together to form the state government under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi. But now, Shiv Sena leader and the architect of this coalition Sanjay Raut has shed light on some interesting sequence of events that took place when political stalwarts like Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge and others were negotiating the power equations.
Raut has written about this in his weekly column Rokhthok in Saamana, the mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena party. In his article Raut says, “Some people were laughing at us saying that the meetings that took place between me and Sharad Pawar for 35 days were merely timepass. When journalists asked me on November 17 morning about how many MLAs do you have in support to form the government, I replied that we had 170 MLAs. Many people laughed at me when they heard this figure. At that time the Congress had not explicitly said yes for supporting the government but senior leaders like Ahmed Patel were speaking positively.”
“Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Prithviraj Chavan were keeping an eye on what portfolios the NCP was getting in the deal. During the meeting at Nehru Centre on November 22, Mallikarjun Kharge remained adamant that the legislative assembly speaker post would not be given to the NCP. This was the point of friction between Kharge and Sharad Pawar. I saw Sharad Pawar so furious for the first time in my life. He was collecting all the papers on the table and about to leave. When he stepped out, me and Prafull Patel followed him to his car,” Raut has said.
“At the start of that meeting itself, Sharad Pawar had categorically mentioned that Uddhav Thackeray would be the Chief Minister, but the friction between Pawar and Kharge changed the mood of the meeting,” Raut added.
Senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar was also present for the meeting. Raut says, “Ajit Pawar was busy chatting on his phone when the spat between Kharge and Pawar happened. He was chatting on his phone for quite a long time and then he also left the meeting. We saw him next morning at the Rajbhavan taking oath along with Devendra Fadnavis.”
