MUMBAI: NCP working president Praful Patel on Wednesday said he felt like laughing after watching the scene at the recent meeting of 17 opposition parties in Patna.
"I went to the joint opposition meeting in Patna with Sharad Pawar, and I felt like laughing when I saw the scene there," Patel said while addressing a meeting of NCP convened by Ajit Pawar in Mumbai.
"There were 17 opposition parties there, and seven of them have only one MP in Lok Sabha. There was one party that has zero MPs. They claim they will bring change," he said.
Patel said the country wants to know why he has sided with Ajit Pawar. "I will respond to this query at an appropriate time," he added.
"When the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray was on the verge of collapse last year, all NCP legislators and ministers had requested Sharad Pawar to go with the BJP," he said.
"When we could accept the ideology of Shiv Sena, then what is the objection in going with BJP?" he asked.
Patel said his party has decided to join the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra in the national interest and the interest of the party and not for personal gain.
Speaking at the meeting, NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal said, "Babasaheb Ambedkar said that we should be in power to serve the people. People ask us why did we go with the BJP? We went with the BJP in the same manner as we went with the Shiv Sena. What is new in this? Even Nitish Kumar, Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik, Mehbooba Mufti etc went with the BJP and then left it," he said.