Anil Deshmukh on MVA government: For the second time in last four months, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh claimed today (May 24) that he was given an offer to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and help topple the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.
Deshmukh said that the purported proposal had come over two years ago, and also when he was jailed for alleged corruption charges.
"If I had accepted that offer, the MVA government would have fallen much before. But, I declined it and had to face action by various central agencies," Anil Deshmukh told media.
"I also informed NCP Chief Sharad Pawar about the offer made to me by some opposition party," Deshmukh added.
When MVA govt was collapsed:
The MVA government of Uddhav Thackeray fell in June last year after several Shiv Sena MLAs rebelled under Eknath Shinde, who went on to become chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"The 40 MLAs of Shiv Sena left the original party and formed government with BJP as they were threatened with action by the Enforcement Directorate. I was put in jail for 14 months under bogus accusations. However, I never gave up," Deshmukh claimed.
Similar claim made by Deshmukh made in Feb this year:
Earlier, in February also Deshmukh had made a similar claim while talking about the blatant misuse of central investigating agencies against the Opposition leaders. MVA ally and Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that he was aware of the developments claimed by Deshmukh and similar offers were made to other MVA leaders too, including himself, but they didn't succumb to the BJP's pressures.
Reacting sharply to the NCP leader's assertions, Maharashtra BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule dismissed Deshmukh's contentions outright and reminded him that he is "only out of jail on bail".
"He has been granted bail on health grounds by the court. The case hearings are still on and his utterances tantamount to a contempt of the court. If he continues making such statements, we shall complain to the court," warned Bawankule.
Corruption case against Anil Deshmukh:
It may be recalled that in November 2021 Deshmukh was jailed in alleged corruption and money-laundering cases for nearly 13 months before he secured bail and walked out of prison on bail on December 28.
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