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Pouring cold water on speculation that his party has softened its stance towards the BJP, NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) chief Sharad Pawar has hit out at Amit Shah and accused him of not maintaining the decorum of the Home Minister's post. The senior leader was reacting to Mr Shah's remarks that the BJP's thumping victory in the Maharashtra Assembly elections had ended the politics of "treachery and betrayal" started by him in 1978.
Mr Shah's attack, seen as a reference to Mr Pawar walking out of the then Vasantdada Patil-led government in Maharashtra in 1978 with 40 MLAs and then becoming the chief minister, was made while he was addressing a state BJP convention in Shirdi on Sunday.
Hitting back on Tuesday, Mr Pawar said, "I was the chief minister in 1978. I am not aware of his (Amit Shah's) whereabouts then. When I was the chief minister, there were people like Uttamrao Patil from (BJP's predecessor) Jana Sangh in my ministry."
Pointing out that there used to be good communication between political leaders earlier and that then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made him the vice-chairman of the Disaster Management Authority after the Bhuj earthquake in 2001 despite him being in the opposition, the NCP (SP) chief said that the decorum of the post of Home Minister should be maintained.
"There used to be 'susamvaad' (good communication) between political leaders earlier, but that is missing now," he said.
In his speech at the BJP convention, Mr Shah had said, "The victory of BJP in Maharashtra ended the politics of instability and backstabbing started by Sharad Pawar in 1978. You (BJP workers) have buried such politics 20 feet in the ground."
"From 1978 till 2024, Maharashtra was prone to political instability. You have shown the way by bringing in a stable and strong Devendra Fadnavis government," he added.
In the Maharashtra elections, held in November last year, the BJP had won 132 of the state's 288 seats and its Mahayuti allies, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP, had bagged 57 and 41, respectively.
The opposition alliance, the Maha Vikas Aghadi - consisting of the Congress, Udhhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) - was routed, winning just 46 seats in all. With just 10 constituencies, Sharad Pawar's party had finished at the bottom of the table in the alliance.
(With PTI inputs)