Day before Sharad Pawar's comments Anil Deshmukh accused past government of tapping phones in 2019 polls

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said that all political leaders know that their phones are tapped, which is why they do not think about it seriously.

His comments come a day after Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh accused the previous BJP-led state government of tapping phones of senior NCP and Congress leaders during the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

"It is not new, we all know our phones are tapped. Hence, we never thought about it seriously," Mr Pawar told reporters.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had rejected on Friday Mr Deshmukh's allegation saying that phone tapping was not the culture of the state and his government had not given any such orders.

The Maharashtra government has directed the cyber cell of the state police to look into various complaints of snooping/phone-tapping against the Fadnavis government.