Money, power, other means being used to topple govts, says Sharad Pawar in swipe at BJP

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar. File Pic

Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and said money, power and other means were being deployed to destabilise governments in the country.

He said these kind of activities had never taken place at such a big level in the country before.

The NCP chief added that a new term "khokha" (crore) was getting popular in the state and was being used in reference to people's elected representatives.

The Shiv Sena and the BJP have been attacking each other since the Maha Vikas Aghadi government collapsed in June and the term is being used to allege that money was exchanged to get MLAs to switch sides.

Queried on eight Congress MLAs joining the BJP in Goa and the Aam Aadmi Party accusing the saffron party of horse-trading attempts in Punjab, Pawar said such activities had led to change of government in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Also Read: Sharad Pawar advocates 'unity of Opposition parties' for 2024 elections

"In Maharashtra, 40 to 50 MLAs defected (referring to the rebellion in the Shiv Sena) and the government changed. In MP, the Kamal Nath government fell and Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned as chief minister," he said.

"They (referring to the BJP) are using money, power and other means to destabilise stable governments and form dispensations as per their wish. This is a new kind of programme that has been undertaken by the party ruling at the Centre. Such a thing was there in the country at a big level," Pawar added.

The former Union minister said Central probe agencies were being misused to target opposition parties and their leaders, and went on to warn that such moves would backfire as "the situation (being in power) would not be permanent, and not today but tomorrow there will be change".

Asked about the BJP announcing that it would wrest his home turf Baramati in upcoming polls and the proposed tour of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to the constituency, Pawar said all parties have the right to take efforts to win seats.

Queried about a joint opposition move to fight the BJP in the 2024 general elections, Pawar said there is a thought process that something should be done by coming together.

"There are several people like (Bihar CM) Nitish Kumar, (West Bengal CM) Mamata Banerjee, parties in Delhi and Punjab with whom talks can take place. There is a wish that such (unity) efforts need to be taken, but it has not yet started," he added.

He also mocked the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra, which came to power on June 30, saying he had not see any work being done, though the CM was moving about at high speed to understand the state.

Asked if the NCP would join the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', Pawar said no thought had been given to this aspect so far.

There is a lot of time for the march led by Rahul Gandhi to reach Maharashtra, Pawar said, adding that he was getting reports from colleagues about it attracting good response from people, especially the youth.

Decrying the continuous mocking of Rahul Gandhi by one party, Pawar said, "You are free to criticise the policies, programme of a party but ridiculing someone at a personal level is nothing but a childish approach."

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