Sharad Pawar, the NCP founder, acknowledged that the Maharashtra Assembly election outcome, where the Maha Vikas Aghadi suffered a surprising loss to the ruling Mahayuti, was unforeseen and recognized it as the people’s verdict.
After the MVA’s defeat in the Assembly elections, Sharad Pawar, the leader of NCP (SP), admitted that his nephew Ajit Pawar secured 41 out of 288 Assembly seats and claimed that the NCP’s founder was well-known.
Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction only secured 10 seats, marking its lowest performance since the party (when it was still unified) was established in 1999. The NCP divided in July of the previous year,
when Ajit Pawar and a faction of MLAs who supported him defied Sharad Pawar and aligned with the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde. Ajit Pawar later assumed the role of Deputy Chief Minister.
Sharad Pawar remarked that he had never witnessed such a level of money being used in elections and criticized Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for polarizing the electoral atmosphere with the slogan ‘batenge toh katenge’ (divided we fall).
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“I heard from people that such money power use was never seen before. The way the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister made comments, it was clear that they wanted to polarise. There was polarisation in the election and he was brought here (in Maharashtra) for that,” he said.
Asked to react to claims of EVMs malfunctioning, Sharad Pawar said, “I heard about it from some colleagues, but I don’t have the authenticity of it.”
