NCP's Praful Patel takes jibe at Opposition unity, calls it 'laughable'

Patel said their siding with the BJP-led NDA was taken for national interest and party’s future and not for personal gains.

Seeking to puncture the Opposition-unity, NCP working president Praful Patel said that he “felt like laughing” when he accompanied NCP supremo Sharad Pawar to the Patna meeting.

Pawar, his daughter and working president Supriya Sule and Patel had attended the June 23 meeting in Patna.

Patel’s statement comes ahead of the 17-18 July Opposition-unity meeting slated to be held in Bengaluru after the venue was changed from Shimla because of weather conditions in the Himalayan foothills.

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"I went to the joint opposition meeting in Patna with Pawar Saheb and I felt like laughing when I saw the scene there. There were 17 Opposition parties there, seven of them have only 1 MP in the Lok Sabha and one party has no MP at all,” said Patel, a former civil aviation minister in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.

Patel made it clear that the decision of the NCP to ally with the BJP-led NDA was taken for national interest and party’s future and not for personal gains. “When joining hands with Shiv Sena was okay, what is the issue why joining hands with BJP,” he added.