The Sena benefitted from the goodwill people had towards Devendra Fadnavis, he said (File)
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said then Shiv Sena, Congress and Sharad Pawar alliance was trying to capture Maharashtra through the "back door" through a "conspiracy" -- which the BJP has stopped. The party's Devendra Fadnavis took oath this morning as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra with Nationalist Congress Party's Ajit Pawar as his deputy, leaving the Shiv Sena and the Congress shell-shocked.
Veteran politician and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who was trying to put together a three-party alliance--- tentatively named the "Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (Maharashtra Development Front) -- said he had no prior knowledge about the BJP mechanisations in which his nephew was involved.
The Sena accused the BJP of betraying the mandate of people.
Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Sena was in no position to complain, since the alliance was yet to stake claim to form government and the BJP had emerged as the single largest party with a better performance than in 2014.
"The people in Maharashtra were starting to ask questions that if the mandate is so clearly in BJP's favour then why not stop this unholy alliance... why not respect the mandate and form the government," he said.
Accusing the Shiv Sena of giving up its values "just for personal gains", he said the Sena candidates had benefitted from the goodwill people had towards Devendra Fadnavis.
"The real schemers were the ones who were forming an unholy alliance for personal gains," he said. "The Congress and NCP themselves said that the mandate is for them to sit in the opposition. So how has this suddenly become a match-fixing to grab the chair?"
Sharad Pawar has claimed that the BJP would lose the trust vote. Ajit Pawar, he said, has no more than 10 to 11 MLAs with him and had presented the support letter prepped for the Sena-Congress-NCP alliance to the Governor.
Reports suggest that Devendra Fadnavis has to prove his majority by November 30.
"The place to prove our majority is the Maharashtra Assembly, and we will prove it when the time comes" Ravi Shakar Prasad said.