A day after NCP chief Sharad Pawar claimed that Narendra Modi had proposed "working together" and had offered a cabinet berth to daughter Supriya Sule, the Baramati MP thanked the Prime Minister, saying she was grateful for the offer.
In an interview to a Marathi TV channel on Monday, Pawar claimed that the offer came as the BJP was trying to cobble together numbers to form government in Maharashtra. It was eventually successful in luring NCP leader Ajit Pawar and a government led by Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in on November 23.
The government, however, lasted only 80 hours as Fadnavis resigned after Ajit Pawar failed to bring the required number of MLAs to support the BJP. On November 28, Uddhac Thackeray took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister as the leader of Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine.
Breaking his silence on the political manoeuvring that went on in the state for a month after the assembly election results were announced on October 24, Sharad Pawar on Monday said, "Modi had offered me to work together. I told him that our personal relations are very good and they will remain that way but it is not possible for me to work together."
Dismissing the reports that Modi government offered to make him India's President, Pawar added, "But there surely was an offer to make Supriya (Sule) a minister in the Modi-led cabinet."
Sule, a Lok Sabha member from Baramati in Pune district, on Tuesday, thanked the Prime Minister.
"Ye pradhan mantri ji ka badappan hai ki unhone aisa sujhav diya. Main unki aabhari hoon unhone kaha, lekin wo ho nahi paya (This is prime minister's generosity that he suggested this. I am grateful to him, but this couldn't materialise)," Sule said.
