'Consider my duty to thank PM': Sharad Pawar's backhanded compliment for Modi
'Consider my duty to thank PM': Sharad Pawar's backhanded compliment for Modi
NEW DELHI: Nationalist Congress Party-SP (NCP-SP) leader Sharad Pawar on Saturday took a cheeky dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that Maharashtra's opposition alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), secured victories in all those seats the PM campaigned in. MVA won 30 out of 48 seats in this year's Lok Sabha election.
Taking a jibe at PM Modi, Sharad Pawar at a press conference said, "Wherever the Prime Minister's roadshow and rally took place, we won. That is why I consider it my duty to thank the Prime Minister."
BJP, which on its own had received 20-plus seats in the last two polls, struggled to get even 10 seats in Maharashtra this year. BJP's vote share in Maharashtra stood at 26.18%. In contrast, Congress managed to slightly improve its performance, winning 13 seats in the state and Shiv Sena contributed nine seats.
Speaking at the same press conference, Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, who faced a major political crisis in his party when the Shiv Sena split in 2022, declared that the doors are shut for all his former party members who abandoned his faction and joined the camp of his rival, Eknath Shinde.
When asked if he would welcome back the leaders who had deserted his faction, Thackeray firmly stated, "Absolutely not. Those who left me will not be taken back." Sharad Pawar, when posed the same question, responded, "There is no question of taking them back."
Regarding the acceptance of new leaders into his party, Thackeray said, "We will move forward with all those people who stayed with us, and struggled with us. If some people want to join us, we will see."
Encouraged by the Lok Sabha poll outcomes, Thackeray also proclaimed that the MVA will jointly participate in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. "When three parties come together, it means everyone is together and everyone will fight together," he affirmed.
Across the country, BJP's victory count fell short of their previous achievements. On the other hand, Congress witnessed a resurgence, clinching 99 seats, a significant increase from the 52 seats they won in 2019 and the 44 in 2014.
(With inputs from agencies)
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