Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra and one of the veteran Congress leaders, Prithviraj Chavan’s disclosure regarding late BJP leader Gopinath Munde has become a topic of discussion. Chavan has made a big claim about Munde. He has said that Gopinath Munde once wanted to join Congress, and he was also preparing for it.
The former CM made shocking revelations during a press conference in Satara on Saturday. He said that Gopinath Munde was once interested in joining the Congress and during his tenure as Chief Minister, secret meetings were also held on this issue between Munde and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel.
Gopinath Munde had placed the condition
Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan also told that Gopinath Munde had put an important condition for joining Congress and that condition was for the post of minister. He told that Munde wanted to be given a ministerial post after joining Congress. Chavan told that Munde had said that if he was not made a minister, then two people of Nagpur would not let him win the elections. There was a caste issue at that time.
Sonia Gandhi approves, Manmohan Singh denies
According to Chavan, the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi had approved Munde’s joining the Congress. However, the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh was not in favor of including any opposition MP in the Congress and making him a minister. Singh’s argument was that it would not be a right tradition to give a ministerial post to an MP from the opposition party immediately after joining the party. For this reason Gopinath Munde could not join Congress.
‘Then things would have been different…’
Along with this, Prithviraj Chavan also said that during this entire incident, meeting Sonia Gandhi directly instead of going to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is still a matter of regret for him. He believes that if direct talks had been held with the Prime Minister at that time, things might have been different.
After this claim of Prithviraj Chavan, an old political development regarding the possible entry of Gopinath Munde into Congress in Maharashtra politics has again come into discussion.
What was said on the closeness of Sharad Pawar and BJP?
Apart from this, Prithviraj Chavan also gave his reaction regarding the alleged closeness between NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar and BJP. He said that Sharad Pawar’s party is an ally of Congress, but he is not fully aware of what is really going on inside his party at this time. On the question of Supriya Sule meeting some MPs, Chavan said that if the work of the opposition MPs was not getting done and they went to meet the concerned people with their problems, then there is nothing wrong in it.
‘The process of changing sides is not over yet’
Along with this, Chavan also mentioned some of his old colleagues who had joined BJP during this period. He told that some of his old friends who had joined BJP say that he has broken one political party by running Operation Tiger and now he is keeping an eye on another party. He said that this is why he had already warned to be careful. According to him, the process of division within parties and change of leaders in Maharashtra politics is not over yet. That is, his indication was clear that in the coming time, more people may also change sides.
