Gautam Adani, the billionaire and chairman of the Adani Group, was part of political talks between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Nationalist Congress Party five years ago, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said in an interview with Newslaundry and The News Minute. At the end of that episode, Ajit Pawar defected to the BJP and was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.

Speaking to journalist Sreenivasan Jain ahead of the elections in Maharashtra, Ajit, who was talking about the meetings that took place with the BJP around November 2019, said, “It has been five years. Everyone knows where the meeting happened; that it happened in Delhi at a businessman’s house. Everyone knows it…All of it happened five years ago... Yes, there were five meetings. Everyone was there. Let me tell you again. Amit Shah, Gautam Adani, Praful Patel, Devendra Fadnavis, and Sharad Pawar. Everyone was there. Everything was decided. The blame has fallen on me. I have taken the blame and let others be safe.”

The meetings Ajit was referring to occurred in November 2019 when he tried to split the NCP to form a government with the BJP when the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance split. Ajit Pawar stepped in along with a number of MLAs to form the Maha Vikas Aghadi headed by Devendra Fadnavis. At the time, Ajit Pawar was Deputy CM for 80 hours, after the majority of MLAs returned to the NCP as Sharad Pawar refused to join the BJP. 

Ajit Pawar finally managed to split the party in July 2023 and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance  as part of the Mahayuti. 

The revelations have come in for sharp criticism from opposition parties. Shiv Sena (Uddhav) spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said on X, “… Gautam Adani has sat through meetings to decide how to get the BJP to power in Maharashtra by trying to fix unlikely alliances.”

Watch the full interview with Sreenivasan Jain, exclusively for subscribers, here. And if you aren’t a subscriber yet, click here to change that. You’ll be able to access this exclusive interview with Ajit Pawar, other interviews and ground reports, podcasts and video stories, and so much more.

In a recent interview with The Times of India, Supriya Sule, the president of NCP (SP) and Ajit Pawar’s cousin, recalling the events of July 2023, said some party members switched sides because they feared action from the Income Tax, CBI, and Enforcement Directorate. She also said that six current ministers of Ajit Pawar's party had denied they were joining Mahayuti when they spoke to her at Ajit Pawar's official residence in Mumbai, just before taking their oaths.  

Newslaundry reached out to Supriya Sule for comment. She said, “I have no information about such a meeting. You will have to ask Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar about that meeting.”

When asked if these revelations will hurt the NCP, since it was previously thought only the junior Pawar had met with the BJP, she said, “What harm can it do? Who left the party? It was Ajit Pawar who left. We are still standing here. After that, he contested the election. Didn’t his wife fight against me? Ajit Pawar brought more disgrace to the BJP than we did.”

She added, “Our family has had ties with Gautam Adani for 30 years. We haven’t hidden it. Ajit Pawar asked you to ask them when and at what time the meeting took place. Only they can answer that.”

Newslaundry reached out to BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye, who confirmed that a meeting did take place between senior BJP and NCP leaders. However, he did not comment on who precisely had attended.

Newslaundry also contacted the Adani Group for comment but did not receive a response.

Maharashtra is set to go to polls on November 20 in a single-phase election, where the BJP, Congress, Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (Uddhav), NCP, and NCP (Sharad Pawar) will fight it out for 288 Assembly seats. The counting will be held on November 23. While BJP-Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-backed NCP have formed the Mahayuti, while Uddhav’s faction of Shiv Sena, the Congress, and Sharad Pawar-backed NCP, along with other parties, have formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi.