“No dispute about CM post in our alliance”: NCP-SCP chief Sharad Pawar

Kolhapur (Maharashtra) [India], September 4 (ANI): NCP-SCP supremo Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance has no dispute over the post of Chief Minister and a final decision on the position would be made after the elections in Maharashtra.

Speaking at a press conference in Kolhapur today, Pawar said there was no doubt that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will get the majority in the upcoming legislative assembly elections that are expected to take place later this year.

“There is no dispute about the post of Chief Minister in our alliance. After the elections, we will think about it and make a decision. We have not got the majority yet, but there is no doubt that we will get the majority. Once the elections are over, we will sit and discuss the face of the post of Chief Minister,” he said.

He further added many times in the past alliances had gone to the polls without any Chief Ministerial face.

“This has happened many times before when a party or alliance has gone to the elections without any face. And after the elections, someone has been chosen to run the government. For example, in the elections held immediately after the emergency in 1977, no one was made the candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Jayaprakash Narayan’s name was at the forefront; elections were held and when it came to choosing the Prime Minister, Morarji Desai was chosen as the Prime Minister. Therefore, I believe that there is no need to choose the face for the post of Chief Minister before the elections. After the elections, on the basis of the majority of the public, we will all sit together and after discussing among ourselves, we will choose the face for the post of Chief Minister,” Pawar added.

Speaking on the Badlapur incident and the protest that followed because of it, Pawar said, “Little girls were tortured in Badlapur and this is very disgusting; thousands of people protested and the government alleged that people were brought from outside. Cases were imposed on many of the people who had come there to protest against the government; this filled the minds of the people with anger. It is not right to force cases on people. And it is not a political thing to say that the cases of those who have been booked in this manner should be withdrawn. We did not bring the people who had come there. And there is no issue of politics in this.”

Addressing the issue of the collapse of the 35-foot-tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj at Rajkot Fort in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, he said, “Jaydeep Apte, who made this effigy, had very limited experience. As far as the argument that the effigy got damaged due to strong winds and falls is concerned, it is not correct. Because we see that the statue installed near the Gateway of India is not affected by the strong wind, the statue installed in Shivaji Park (Dadar) is not affected by the strong wind. So, it would not be fair to say that the statue fell due to strong wind. The person who was given the work had no experience making such a statue; it was wrong to give such a big work to such a person.”

“Those who have talked about history do not have the right to speak on what Maharaj did. Jaisingh Rao Pawar has said that Shivaji Maharaj had attacked Surat twice, and historian Indrajit Sawant has also supported his statement. Do not tell the wrong history to the people and the new generation. No one should do the work of telling the wrong history. And the opinion expressed by historians in this regard should be respected,” Pawar said while speaking on Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s statement on Shivaji Maharaj’s not attacking and looting Surat.

On the RSS’s statement that caste-based census should only be used for the betterment of those communities or castes that are lagging rather than politics or election practises, Pawar said, “It is the demand of all of us that there should be a caste census. This will create more opportunities for the smaller communities. If caste census is done, then if RSS is in favour of caste census, there is nothing wrong with it.”