Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said the 2019 "experiment" by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis "failed and backfired" when he tried to form a BJP-led government with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar.
Talking to reporters, Raut said people did not take Fadnavis seriously after his early morning oath as Chief Minister with Ajit Pawar as his deputy on November 23, 2019, a coalition government that last for just over three days.
Fadnavis, in an interview with a news channel, claimed NCP president Sharad Pawar had agreed to form a government with the BJP in 2019, but later backed off and played a "double game".
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"If Sharad Pawar has done anything then it's okay. There is nothing new in it. You experimented and it failed and backfired. That's the bottom line. Forget about the double game. He (Sharad Pawar) subsequently formed a government (with united Shiv Sena and Congress) and Uddhav Thackeray became the CM and Pawar Saheb backed it completely. This is a fact," Raut said.
The Rajya Sabha MP claimed the current government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in which Fadnavis is deputy CM, will not last long.
The Shinde-Fadnavis government will complete one year in office on June 30.
"His government will go for sure after the SC judgment (on the 2022 political crisis in Maharashtra and disqualification pleas)," Raut said.
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After the 2019 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (then undivided) snapped ties with its long-term ally BJP over the issue of sharing the chief ministerial post.
Later, Fadnavis was sworn in as chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as his deputy in a hush-hush early morning ceremony at the Raj Bhavan, but the government lasted only 80 hours.
Thackeray subsequently allied with the NCP and the Congress to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi government (MVA), which collapsed on June 29, 2022, following a rebellion in the Shiv Sena.
