Maharashtra: BJP calls NCP leader Shashikant Shinde's claim on joining offer a joke

NCP leader Shashikant Shinde on Saturday claimed he had got an offer from the BJP when it was in power in Maharashtra under Devendra Fadnavis but he refused due to his loyalty to NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.

The BJP, however, brushed it aside saying Shinde was "cracking a joke".

Shinde, who lost the 2019 Assembly polls from Koregaon in Satara to Shiv Sena's Mahesh Shinde, added that the BJP had assured him of a ministership as well as a bypoll win if he switched sides.

"I was recently queried by some reporters if I got an offer to join BJP when several others from the district joined the party. I clearly told them whatever identity I have in politics is because of (Sharad) Pawar saheb. I would not leave the party at any cost," Shinde said in a video message.

"When Devendra Fadnavis was chief minister, I received several offers through some senior BJP leaders. I was lured to join after resigning, and was given an assurance that I would be made minister," he claimed.

He said the BJP told him even if Rs 100 crore was needed to be spent to get him re-elected to the Assembly, the party would do it.

Shinde said he was once again approached by the BJP when then Satara Lok Sabha MP Udayanraje Bhosale was about to join the saffron party, but he refused.

Ridiculing the statements, senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, "It is well known the election expenditure limit for contestants is Rs 28 lakh, so how can an offer of Rs 100 crore be made? Either Shinde has no knowledge or he was cracking a political joke."