100% true: Fadnavis on Sharad Pawar backing his govt

Sticking to his statement that Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar had backed his plan to form a government with his nephew Ajit Pawar, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis has said his statement was "100 per cent true" and he was not lying.

In one of the biggest political surprises in Maharashtra, the then Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari swore in Fadnavis as the chief minister and Ajit Pawar as deputy CM in an early morning ceremony on November 23, 2019.

But the government lasted just three days, after which Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister.

Fadnavis on Monday said his oath-taking ceremony with Ajit Pawar in 2019 had Sharad Pawar's backing.

The NCP chief, however, stoutly denied Fadnavis's claim and said he never thought the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader will base his assertion on falsehood.

On Wednesday, Fadnavis told reporters here that, "Whatever I had said was 100 per cent true, and there was no lie in it. I won't speak today on various interpretations that are being derived. I want to speak more on this, and I will speak at an appropriate time and that time is yet to come."

Asked that following his statement Ajit Pawar is "not reachable", Fadnavis said he cannot speak about the NCP leader. "He should decide what he has to say," Fadnavis added.

The deputy CM earlier said, "We had an offer from the NCP that they needed a stable government and we should form such a government together. We decided to go ahead and hold talks. The talks happened with Sharad Pawar. Then things changed. You have seen how things changed."

Meanwhile, asked about the Assam government advertisement claiming the sixth 'Bhimashankar' jyotirlinga was situated in the north-eastern state, Fadnavis said nobody can make this kind of claim.

"Bhimashankar is ours (Maharashtra's). It is a jyotirlinga. Nothing is going to happen if somebody makes any claim. Our Bhimashankar has been known as a jyotirlinga for centuries," he said.

Traditionally, the Shiva temple at Bhimashankar near Pune is considered to be the sixth of the 12 Jyotirlingas in the country. According to Hindu mythology, the places from where Lord Shiva emerged are known as jyotirlingas.