Gautam Adani never attended our meetings: Devendra Fadnavis rejects charge

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday denied reports of industrialist Gautam Adani being involved in the discussion of a possibility of a BJP-NCP government in the state after the 2019 Assembly polls. Fadnavis’s clarification came after NCP leader Ajit Pawar claimed that top leaders of BJP and NCP were part of the government formation talks hosted by Adani at his Delhi home. However, Ajit Pawar, Fadnavis’s deputy, later backtracked in an interview about his claim, saying he “made a mistake”.
Fadnavis said that while the meeting between BJP and NCP leaders happened, he clarified that Adani was not present. “See, the meeting had happened. Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah and I were there. But, Gautam Adani was not there,” he told India Today’s Anjana Om Kashyap.

Earlier, in an interview with Newslaundry and The News Minute, Ajit Pawar alleged that he, Fadnavis, Amit Shah, Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel were part of the BJP-NCP talks in the presence of Adani at his home in Delhi in 2019. Later, Ajit Pawar’s estranged uncle Sharad Pawar also backed his nephew’s claim in an interview with Newslaundry and The News Minute, alleging that the industrialist hosted a meeting of BJP and NCP leaders at his Delhi home.
As a controversy surfaced over allegations of an industrialist’s involvement in government formation, Ajit Pawar later made a U-turn of his claim in an interview with news agency ANI, saying he made a “mistake” by making such a statement.
“I said that he (Adani) was not present there. We were at Adani’s guest house. In state government formation, there is no role of an industrialist. Sometimes we are so busy campaigning and giving interviews, and by mistake, I made a statement,” Ajit Pawar said.
When asked if he was pressurised to give such a statement, Ajit Pawar asserted that he did not come under pressure from anyone.
In 2019, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar joined hands and were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister in dramatic scenes in a short-lived government that lasted only 80 hours or three-and-a-half days.
Following the high-voltage drama, Ajit Pawar then returned to the then-undivided NCP, which went on to become part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, along with the Congress and undivided Shiv Sena. However, in June 2022, the coalition collapsed after a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by now-Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rebelled.
Shinde became the Chief Minister of the Mahayuti government along with Fadnavis, who became his deputy. A year later, Ajit Pawar, along with several NCP MLAs, rebelled again and joined the ruling coalition. He, too, became the Deputy Chief Minister.
Ajit Pawar’s split resulted in one faction backing him and the other supporting Sharad Pawar.
Maharashtra, which has 288 Assembly seats, will vote in a single phase on November 20. Counting of votes will take place three days later. This is the first Assembly election after the split of Shiv Sena and NCP.