NCP MLAs had written to Sharad Pawar demanding party join govt when Thackeray dispensation was collapsing, says Ajit Pawar

If my claim is right, then those spreading lies should retire, he asserted.Ajit Pawar, who joined the Shinde government along with eight MLAs on July 2 this year, said just about anybody is now standing up and speaking against us.We respect that in a democracy people have the right to express dissent.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday claimed ''almost all MLAs'' of the Nationalist Congress Party had written a letter to Sharad Pawar demanding that the party join the government when the Uddhav Thackeray-led dispensation was on its way out.

Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government, comprising the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena, collapsed in June last year after Eknath Shinde rebelled. The rebellion played out between June 21 last year, when several MLAs left for Surat in Gujarat and onwards to Assam, and culminated on June 30 when Shinde became chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

''When the Uddhav Thackeray's government was about to collapse, almost all NCP MLAs had written a letter to the party chief (Sharad Pawar) asking him to join the government (by supporting the BJP),'' Ajit Pawar said at a rally in Kolhapur.

''If it (what he has said) is wrong, then I will retire from active politics immediately. If my claim is right, then those spreading lies should retire,'' he asserted.

Ajit Pawar, who joined the Shinde government along with eight MLAs on July 2 this year, said ''just about anybody is now standing up and speaking against us''.

''We respect that in a democracy people have the right to express dissent. We are in power to solve the issues of people,'' he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)