Uddhav Thackeray Could Still Be Chief Minister Of Maharashtra Had He Used The Chhagan Bhujbal Formula: NCP Leader Ajit Pawar
Mumbai, 14th October 2022: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Thursday said that Uddhav Thackeray could have remained the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. However, for this, Pawar suggested the Bhujbal formula. The former deputy CM of Maharashtra said that Uddhav could have retained the post in the state if he had sought help from veteran politician Chhagan Bhujbal during the crisis. Ajit Pawar said, “When 15 Shiv Sena MLAs were leaving the party, Uddhav Thackeray should have taken the help of Chhagan Bhujbal (NCP leader). He is the master of such scenarios. If you had approached him, you would have still been the CM of Maharashtra.”
Pawar said this at an event organized on the 75th birthday of Bhujbal. Several leaders of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) attended the event. Uddhav Thackeray also attended the event. National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, and Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat also attended the event.
Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray said that senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal would have become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra had he not left the Shiv Sena. Thackeray said, “Now I have become such a person who does not feel any setbacks. But when Bhujbal left Shiv Sena, I must admit that our family was shocked. That anger (which turned out to be at that time) was political. For a long time, we could not digest the fact that a member of our family had left us.” Bhujbal, once a flamboyant leader of Shiv Sena, left Bal Thackeray’s party Shiv Sena and joined the Congress in 1990. After this, when Pawar formed the NCP, he went with them.
Earlier, Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ajit Pawar recalled Bhujbal’s role in the formation of the NCP and how he played a key role in saving the troubled Vilasrao Deshmukh government in 2002. “If Uddhav Thackeray had taken Bhujbal’s help (during the recent crisis that led to the collapse of the MVA government), he would have been the Chief Minister even today,” Pawar said. Pawar said the Maharashtra assembly elections were held just four months after the NCP was formed in 1999. Had the party had more time, it could have won more seats, and Bhujbal would have become the Chief Minister. To this, Thackeray said that if Bhujbal had not left Shiv Sena, he would have become the CM long before that.
