Praful Patel, a minister in the UPA government and a staunch Sharad Pawar loyalist who sided with the rebels led by Ajit Pawar, today questioned the Opposition's chances in the next year's general elections.
"Unless you got a big party...no party is going to have 150 seats, then the central or biggest party, you form around that number," he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Mr Patel, who served as the civil aviation minister in the government led by Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2011, had also been actively involved in the opposition when the BJP-led government came to power in the Centre.
Last week, he had attended the opposition unity meet in Patna.
Asked how he attended the Opposition meet when he was part of the group planning to cross over to the NDA, Mr Patel said, "You may not believe it, but the talk started a week ago".
He, however, underscored that switching to the BJP has been a longstanding demand of the NCP leaders and its rank and file.
"In NCP, even in 2022, when he MVA government was on verge of collapse, our MLAs wanted to have an alliance with BJP that time," he said.
This time, the decision was taken by an "overwhelming number of elected MLAs and other ranks in the party", he added, insisting that it was "not an individual decision".
from NDTV News- Topstories https://ift.tt/vXCTOP0
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