BJP's political power shrinking in many parts of country, says Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday, 15 October, said the BJP's political power is shrinking in many parts of the country.

Addressing a meeting of Nationalist Congress Party's office-bearers, he also said that people are not supporting those (parties and leaders) who wish to form an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party which is a pan-India picture.

"The people of this country are not with those who wish to ally with the BJP. This is the picture at the pan-India level. You just take out a map of the country and you will see that BJP is not in power in even a single state from south India," he said.

Notably, Pawar's nephew and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in July this year along with eight MLAs. Ajit claims he has the support of a majority of MLAs of NCP and has staked the claim to the party's name and poll symbol.

The senior Pawar, instrumental in forming the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) under Uddhav Thackeray post the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, said the BJP came to power in the state by splitting Shiv Sena.

He claimed a similar formula was applied in Goa as well as in Madhya Pradesh, where Congress was in power till March 2020 when the party-led government collapsed.

Pawar said the BJP was in power only in Gujarat which it managed to retain (in the 2022 polls).

"The BJP is not the ruling party in Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. Except for Uttar Pradesh and a couple of other states, the BJP's political power is shrinking in all other parts of the country,” he said.

Pawar also said the political picture will become clear after the elections.

"The reason behind the BJP losing power is the misuse of power. The decisions taken by that party are not empowering the common man,” he added.