PM Modi wants Sharad Pawar’s daughter in cabinet, says Sena MP. Rubbish, says BJP

Mumbai: Political circles are abuzz after the Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut wrote in the party’s daily Samana on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to induct the Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule in his cabinet.
In his weekly column in Saamana, Raut said the NCP chief Sharad Pawar told him that Modi wished to include his daughter Supriya in the cabinet. She is the MP from Baramati.
Both the NCP and the BJP have dismissed the report, with the later terming it “rubbish”. The BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told HT, ‘’Such contentions are not worth responding to…it’s rubbish. The Sena should focus on internal matters as not the NCP but the Sena’s legislators and leaders are keen on joining the BJP.”
A senior state BJP minister said Raut lacked any credibility and should not be taken seriously. He said there was no question of the BJP wooing the NCP.
Raut quoted Pawar as telling him, “These rumours are premeditated. Once Modi told me he wants Supriya in his cabinet. Supriya was with me at that time. She told Modi to his face she will probably be the last person to join the BJP. Our stand is clear, but just to create confusion, these rumors are spread.”
Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, said though Pawar dismissed the rumors, even today NCP leaders in Maharashtra were in touch with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. “If the chief minister wishes that the NCP should join the BJP in Maharashtra and if they are having secret meetings with NCP leaders, the Sena doesn’t need to worry. For the NCP, which has 41 legislators, it will be the last straw on the camel’s back and the BJP will also be exposed,” Raut wrote.
Relations between allies Sena and BJP have been increasingly choppy with the latter trying to spread its footprint in Maharashtra, the Sena’s home turf. The Sena has donned the role of an opposition within the government and has issued several veiled threats of withdrawing support.
On the other hand, a few key NCP state leaders are in touch with the state BJP leadership and appear eager to join the saffron fold.

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