NCP takes a dig at Amit Shah, says Sharad Pawar has finally defeated 'Chanakya of Indian politics'

MUMBAI: With things moving as per plans regarding government formation in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Friday took a dig at Union Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah, saying its president Sharad Pawar has finally defeated the so-called Chanakya of Indian politics.   

Senior NCP leader Nawab Malik took to Twitter and mocked Shah, saying that his party president had trounced the BJP politician in the race to form government in Maharashtra and Delhi could not topple Maharashtra.

आख़िर भारतीय राजनीती के तथाकथित चाणक्य को @PawarSpeaks साहब ने मात दे ही दी ,
महाराष्ट्र को दिल्ली का तख्त नही झुका पाया,
जय महाराष्ट्र। — Nawab Malik (@nawabmalikncp) November 22, 2019

It may be noted that the NCP supremo had recently said that he would like to see the 'skills' of BJP president Amit Shah in forming the government in Maharashtra. 

His comment came after Shiv Sena parted ways with BJP over bitter differences over power-sharing in Maharashtra despite the two NDA allies winning a comfortable number of seats in the recently concluded assembly elections. 

While addressing a press conference in Mumbai earlier this month, Pawar had said that the BJP and the ShivSena have received a mandate and they should form the government. 

Putting to rest all the speculations of him allying with Shiv Sena, the senior leader had then said, ''We have got the mandate to sit in opposition. I have been Chief Minister four times. It has no desire anymore.''

However, in the recent past, Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress had reached an agreement on forming a coalition government in Maharashtra and have been holding hectic negotiations over power-sharing, portfolio allocation and the agenda of the new government.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar late on Thursday. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut was also present during the midnight meeting which took place at Pawar's residence which was also attended by his daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar.

Though details are not available, it has been reported that Pawar briefed them on all the political development in New Delhi in the past five days, the power-sharing formula, the post of CM, Dy. CM, ministries, etc, among the three prospective partners - Sena-NCP-Congress.

Later, on Friday a series of meetings have been lined up of the Shiv Sena, Congress, later Congress-NCP and their allies and finally among the top leaders of Sena-NCP-Congress.

It's expected that the three parties' alliance - likely to be christened `Maha Vikas Aghadi` - will be formally announced and they would soon stake the claim to form the government before Governor BS Koshyari.

Interestingly, the BJP and Shiv Sena had contested the October Assembly election in Maharashtra as allies and the two parties had got the simple majority to form the government with the BJP winning 105 seats and Sena 56 in 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. 

But the two parties failed to form the government as Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray demanded rotational chief ministerial post, a demand rejected by the BJP. The Congress and the NCP contested the election as allies with the NCP winning 54 seats, while the Congress bagged 44.