Powertrip: Did Adani try to mediate BJP-Shiv Sena peace?

NCP chief Ajit Pawar’s recent revelation about a high-profile meeting to discuss the possibility of the NCP’s support to the BJP has stirred the political landscape. In an interview with Sreenivasan Jain, he mentioned that billionaire Gautam Adani was also present at the meeting. But was it an accidental slip by ‘accidental slip’ by junior Pawar or a calculated move?

Sources said that this was not the only such meeting in which Adani was present. We have got the details in this special edition of Powertrip, exclusively curated for TNM and NL subscribers by Dhanya Rajendran, Shabbir Ahmed, and Pooja Prasanna. 

Ajit Pawar’s ‘accidental’ slip-up

In a recent interview with Sreenivasan Jain, Ajit Pawar casually dropped a bombshell that has Maharashtra’s political circles buzzing. He revealed that Gautam Adani, the billionaire chairman of the Adani Group, was part of backroom talks between the BJP and NCP in 2019. This sparked immediate outrage from the opposition MVA, who began demanding answers: why was Adani, of all people, involved in political deal-making?

But the devil, in this case too, is in the details. One that many people missed. Ajit also mentioned that his uncle, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, was in the very same room. And according to insiders, this wasn’t just a passing mention. 

Ajit’s goal, the Congress and NCP suspects, was to let the world know that Sharad Pawar himself had been engaged in talks with the BJP. And that the defection of Ajit Pawar and other NCP leaders was at Sharad Pawar’s instruction. The twist? In trying to make his uncle’s involvement public, he unintentionally ended up dragging Adani into the spotlight, sparking a controversy that’s thrown Maharashtra politics into chaos.

After the interview went viral, and with the MVA using it to attack the Mahayuti alliance, Ajit Pawar has been on a damage control spree. He is speaking to newspapers denying that Adani was involved in the alliance talks. 

Watch the full interview here.

Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar has also spoken to Sreenivasan Jain and admitted that he was present in the meeting with Amit Shah and Gautam Adani where they listed the cases against NCP leaders and said that the only way they could escape legal action was through allying with the BJP.

Hold on, we have more inside scoop.

Failed truce between Shiv Sena and BJP

Gautam Adani wasn’t just present at that meeting; sources insist he also played a role in trying to broker another high-stakes deal. Acting as the BJP’s emissary, he visited Uddhav Thackeray, aiming to repair the strained relationship between the BJP and Shiv Sena. The discussions covered many potential terms and conditions, but one demand became a deal-breaker: Uddhav insisted on a public apology from top BJP leaders. With this sticking point unresolved, the talks collapsed, leaving relations between the two parties as tense as ever.

This report was republished from The News Minute as part of The News Minute-Newslaundry alliance. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity. Read about our partnership here and become a TNM subscriber here.

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