"Why 2024, I am even now prepared for CM's post": NCP's Ajit Pawar

Pune (Maharashtra) [India], April 22 (ANI): Reacting to a question of whether he will claim the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister in the 2024 elections, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar asked why 2024, he was prepared for the CM post even now.
When asked if he would claim the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister in the 2024 Assembly elections, Ajit Pawar said, "Why 2024, I am even now prepared for the post."
"In 2004, with the numbers that the people gave, NCP got the post of Chief Minister. But in politics, many decisions are taken by the top leadership and discipline is maintained in the party, so we listen to what leadership says", he said.
Pawar further added that in 2004, NCP was in alliance with Congress. "Congress got 69 seats and we got 71 seats, and Congress was preparing to take the post of Deputy Chief Minister but I don't know what happened in Delhi. Later we got an order that we will have to take the post of Deputy Chief Minister for which the MLAs voted with the full majority", he added.
Pawar said that if the CM post was with NCP in 2004, RR Patil would have been chosen for the Chief Minister post.
"Patil was chosen as the leader and if the post of Chief Minister had come to us then RR Patil would have been the Chief Minister of NCP at that time. But we did not get the chance. So we have to keep trying because that is our responsibility", he said. (ANI)