Mumbai, July 10 (IANS) Leaders of the ruling MahaYuti government in Maharashtra on Friday criticised the Congress leader and former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan following his statement regarding the NCP-SP leaders, while claiming that the Sharad Pawar-led party “may merge with the NDA”.

Earlier, NCP-SP MP Supriya Sule had ruled out alignment with NDA and refuted claims made by Chavan that some of the party’s lawmakers were “disgruntled”.

Speaking to IANS, Union Minister and Republican Party Of India (A) Chief Ramdas Athawale said: “I think that the kind of opinion or information given by Prithviraj Chavan that there is pressure on NCP-SP MPs is not meaningful. I don’t think there is any truth in this.”

However, referring to the recent switchovers of several Shiv Sena-UBT MPs into the Eknath Shinde faction and meeting between Sharad Pawar and the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, Athawale added: “Sharad Pawar may join the NDA…he should think of joining the NDA.”

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam said Prithviraj Chavan is “being restless”.

“I don’t know whether Sharad Pawar’s MPs are restless, but I do know that Prithviraj Chavan certainly is. Ever since he became the Chief Minister, he weakened the Congress. Today, no one in the party pays much attention to him or acknowledges him, in such a situation there is an obvious restlessness within him,” he told IANS.

Nirupam claimed that NCP-SP Chief Sharad Pawar is “thinking to either join the Congress or the NDA”.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Krishna Hegde said: “Maybe Prithviraj Chavan has such an information which he disclosed, but we do not have any knowledge of such a report. Instead of keeping an eye on the NCP-SP, Prithviraj Chavan should focus on his own party.”

Meanwhile, NCP-SP leader Naseem Siddiqui lashed out at the Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, saying “It shouldn’t happen that before the MPs of the NCP’s Sharad Pawar faction, the Congress MPs break away. Therefore, he (Chavan) should focus more on his party because people have high expectations from the Congress. But if Congress became weakest at any point, it was during his tenure as the Chief Minister. It was only after that the BJP came to power. If he had managed his tenure as Chief Minister properly and solved the issues of the public, then Maharashtra wouldn’t be facing this situation today.”

–IANS

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