NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: Venting his ire against Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar, veteran OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who has been denied a ministerial berth in the new MahaYuti-NDA dispensation, on Tuesday said that he is not a toy in anybody’s hands.
Bhujbal also said that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was keen that he be in the ministry.
Bhujbal is back in his hometurf of Nashik after he left the winter capital of Nagpur, where the Maharashtra legislature session is under way.
In his attack, 77-year-old Bhujbal, however, did not name Pawar.
A host of NCP MLAs and MLCs have expressed solidarity with Bhujbal, however, they have not spoken publicly.
Asked about his future course of action, Bhujbal said: “jahan nahin chaina, waha nahi rehna”.
A NCP stalwart, Bhujbal had been Deputy CM and worked in the erstwhile Democratic Front, Maha Vikas Aghadi and MahaYuti governments.
“I was keen to contest the Lok Sabha polls (from Nashik),” he said, in what was a reference to the deadlock during seat-sharing discussions with Shiv Sena after which Ajit Pawar left the seat for Shiv Sena’s Hemant Godse.
“In the Rajya Sabha polls (Ajit Pawar’s wife) Sunetra Pawar was nominated,” he said, adding that he was asked to contest the Vidhan Sabha polls.
"I am not a toy in your hands,” said Bhujbal.