MUMBAI: Shiv Sena minister Tanaji Sawant said that he sits next to his NCP peers at Maharashtra cabinet meetings but feels like vomiting after coming out, exposing the fissure within the Mahayuti.
A miffed NCP said it'd be better to leave the govt than put up with such remarks. Speaking at an event Thursday in Dharashiv, health minister Sawant called himself a "hardcore Sainik who never got along" with NCP netas.
"Even if we sit next to each other in the cabinet, I feel like vomiting after coming out," Sawant said. BJP, Shiv Sena led by CM Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar's NCP are partners in the state's governing Mahayuti coalition.
Hitting back, NCP said it is better to quit the alliance than to listen to such statements. "My request to our senior netas would be that we quit Mahayuti rather than listen to such remaeks. Either Tanaji Sawant should be sacked or we quit the alliance," party spokesman Umesh Patil said.
Rival NCP-SP latched onto Sawant's remark, saying it's time for BJP to throw Ajit's party out of the Mahayuti. It is also the time for Ajit Pawar to "wake up and smell the coffee", quipped the rival party led by his uncle Sharad Pawar.
Mahesh Tapase, another NCP-SP spokesman, claimed that Ajit Pawar has lost his self-respect and there is growing discontent within the ranks of the Shinde-led Sena over the alliance with NCP. "I never imagined that Ajit Dada, who once commanded immense respect within NCP, would compromise his self-respect for power," Tapase said.
Sawant's remarks has effectively erased Ajit's political standing, yet, his partymen remain silent, Tapase said.
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