‘Thought it Was Fake News’: Abhishek Singhvi Reacts to NCP’s Last Minute U-turn on Shiv Sena-Congress

Mumbai: Describing the news of NCP and BJP forming the government in Maharashtra as “surreal”, Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said he first thought the news was fake – a reaction most people had when visuals of Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis taking oath first emerged on early Saturday morning.

Singhvi said that the “tripartite negotiations should not have gone on for more than three days.”

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill also reacted in a similar fashion and said there are no true friends in politics.

"This is called betrayal of people's mandate and giving contract for killing democracy," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet.

He also tagged media reports on allegations of Ajit Pawar's involvement in scams.

"Lust for power washes away principles and corruption," Surjewala said on Twitter, tagging a September tweet of Fadnavis in which he had said the BJP will never ally with the NCP as it had "exposed" the latter's corruption.

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who was at the forefront of the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations, said illegal and evil manoeuvres took place in the secrecy of midnight.

"Such was the shame that they had to do the swearing in hiding. This illegitimate formation will self destruct," he said in a tweet.

In an overnight coup, the BJP turned its tables on rivals with a faction of NCP breaking away under Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and forming government under the leadership of Fadnavis in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra chief minister for a second term more than a week after the state was placed under President's rule. NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew, Ajit Pawar, will be his deputy.

The development has brought a major twist in the Maharashtra saga as a day earlier it was senior Pawar who announced that the new Maharashtra government would be led by Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.