Was aware of Ajit's meet with Fadnavis but never thought he'd go so far: Sharad Pawar

In an exclusive interview with the NDTV channel, Pawar said his heated exchange with Congress over portfolio sharing on Nov 22 had been responsible for Ajit's change of mind and as a result, he extended support to Fadnavis, who took oath as the CM of Maharashtra on Nov 23.

"Ajit was very, very unhappy at that heated conversation. The Congress was demanding extra portfolios. I walked out. Ajit also walked out and told my colleagues I don't know how we will be able to work tomorrow. That night he had a meeting with Devendra Fadnavis," Pawar told NDTV.

He admitted that he was aware of the dialogue between Ajit and Fadnavis but never believed the former would go so far.

"There was a suggestion from some BJP leaders that there has to be some dialogue. Even if we could not work together. But the feeling was there has to be dialogue. The dialogue was kept between Ajit Pawar and Fadnavis," said the NCP chief.

Pawar also denied that Ajit extended his support to BJP with his "blessings."

However, even after the 72-hour betrayal by his nephew, Pawar is not ruling out Ajit's chances of being the Deputy CM in the Uddhav Thackeray government.

"I can't say (whether he will be Deputy Chief Minister). It has to be discussed with colleagues. But sizeable members of the party have full respect for him, even if they are unhappy about him going to the BJP," Pawar said.

Even as Uddhav leads the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, the chief architect behind the alliance of the three parties had been Sharad Pawar.

Pawar had held multiple meetings with the leaders of Congress and Shiv Sena to ultimately bring them on the same boat and finally snatch the power off BJP hands.

Revealing the details of the negotiations, he said: "After the results, we had never thought of forming government. We had taken a conscious decision to sit in opposition. But we saw the Sena becoming unhappier by the day because of unfulfilled promises. We had a discussion with Sena's Sanjay Raut. A personal equation was very much there."

Pawar shared that even though he had a personal equation with PM Narendra Modi, the two parties had ideological differences.

He said that both agreed on cooperating and supporting each other in the national interest.

"I told him that was not the route for us, that we are not ideologically compatible with the BJP," he said.

"Working with the Sena is easier than working with the BJP," said Pawar assuring that Sena would not bring in Hindutva politics as per the agenda of the alliance.