Discussed with Sharad Pawar before forming govt with Ajit Pawar in 2019: Devendra Fadnavis
Mumbai, Feb 13: Three years after he teamed up with Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar in an overnight coup to form the government in Maharashtra, deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the exercise had NCP chief Sharad Pawar's backing.
"We had an offer from the NCP that they needed a stable government and we should form such a government together. We decided to go ahead and hold talks. The talks happened with Sharad Pawar. Then things changed. You have seen how things changed," Fadnavis said, referring to Ajit Pawar quitting the government 80 hours later.
"In all fairness I want to state that Ajit Pawar took oath with me with honesty... but later on their (NCP's) strategy changed," Fadnavis said, during an event organised by TV9 news channel.
Responding to Fadnavis' remarks, Sharad Pawar said, "I felt that Devendra is a cultured person and a gentleman. I never felt that he will take recourse to falsehood and make such a statement."
The BJP had won 105 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the results of which were announced on October 24, 2019. The Shiv Sena, which was in an alliance with the BJP, won 56 seats. Despite having enough seats to form a government together, the two allies bickered over power-sharing who will get the chief minister's post being the bone of contention resulting in the Shiv Sena starting negotiations with the ideologically different Congress and NCP instead.
With no outcome in sight then, the Centre imposed President's Rule in Maharashtra on November 12. The Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP continued negotiations to form an alliance, and Sharad Pawar later announced that Uddhav Thackeray had been unanimously chosen to head the new government. Thus, the early morning oath-taking ceremony of Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar on November 23 came as a surprise.
In one of the biggest political surprises in Maharashtra, then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari swore in Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister and Ajit Pawar as Deputy Chief Minister. The ministry lasted three days, after which Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister.
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Mamata again writes to PM Modi on Bengal flood, says her govt not consulted on water release by DVC
Kolkata (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote another letter to PM Narendra Modi on the flood situation in West Bengal, maintaining that Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released water from its reservoirs without consulting her government, inundating several districts.
Responding to Banerjee's earlier letter to the PM, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Paatil had said the state's officials were informed at every stage about the release of water from DVC reservoirs, which was essential to prevent a major disaster.
Banerjee said, "While the hon'ble minister claims that the release from DVC dams was carried out by consensus and collaboration with the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee, including consultations with representatives of the government of West Bengal, I may respectfully disagree."
"All the critical decisions are made unilaterally by representatives of the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India without arriving at a consensus," she said.
Banerjee claimed that sometimes water is released without any notice to the state government and the views of her government are not honoured.
"Moreover peak release from the reservoirs lasting for a prolonged period of nine hours were conducted with only 3.5 hours notice which proved insufficient for effective disaster management," she said in the letter dated September 21, which was made public on Sunday.
In her letter to PM Modi on September 20, she claimed that 5 million people in the state were affected by the floods, and urged him to immediately sanction and release central funds to address the widespread devastation.
In his letter, Paatil addressed the chief minister's concerns about the flooding caused by the release of water from the DVC reservoirs.
He explained that the releases were managed by the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which includes representatives from the Central Water Commission, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and the DVC.
Paatil clarified that from September 14 to 17, the release of water from the Maithon and Panchet reservoirs was curtailed by 50 per cent at the request of West Bengal officials due to heavy rainfall.
