Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. (File) Former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. (File)

FORMER Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday revealed for the first time that Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had refused to meet him to hold discussions on power sharing after the Assembly election results.

Fadnavis said after the Sena chief refused to hold a dialogue with the BJP, he had called him repeatedly. However, Uddhav had refused to take the calls, he said.

During an interaction with journalists at Patrakar Sangh in Pune, when he was asked why he didn’t just visit the Sena chief’s residence Matoshree in Mumbai to meet Uddhav, he said, “I tried, I told them, I will come, they said no…This is not a question of an individual. If someone says don’t come and is not ready to talk, then there is no point in going to them”.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, however, said, “We had said that if they were denying that there was an agreement over 50-50 power sharing, then we were not interested in holding talks. But we never said not to visit Matoshree”.

To a question over his ‘credibility’ after his thwarted attempt to form the government with NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Fadnavis said the November 23 bid for power was an attempt to stay relevant. “In politics, you have to remain relevant. Initially, we were waiting for the Shiv Sena to approach us…We never thought the Sena will join hands with the Congress. Even as we were waiting for the Sena, President’s rule was imposed…After that we realised that they had all … made us irrelevant. The party which had scored more percentage of votes and number of seats, was being sidetracked… In this situation, when Ajit Pawar came to us, we thought we should remain relevant. We resorted to guerrilla warfare tactics, we thought it was an opportunity at a time when we were made irrelevant.” Fadnavis said.

He added that he had never supported the decision. “In future, we will come to know whether the move was right or wrong. It might prove to be wrong. But to remain relevant, we accepted the offer (from Ajit Pawar),” said Fadnavis.

Fadnavis also said the BJP will have to understand the new arithmetic that has emerged, wherein opposition parties come together and contest elections against the BJP. “When the fight is between a political party and an alliance of multiple parties, then the situation is different,” he said, adding that the new situation will have to be taken into consideration while contesting elections.

The leader of the opposition also took on the Maha Vikas Aghadi government — an alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray — saying they had conducted the Assembly session merely as a formality as the government was not able to respond to any issue raised by the opposition.

Fadnavis also criticised the farm loan waiver recently announced by Uddhav, saying, “The loan waiver … is nothing but cheating farmers. The parties in the ruling alliance had assured complete waiver of farm loan but they have failed to implement it,” he said.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Pune News, download Indian Express App.