Gadchiroli (Maha), Nov 7 (PTI) NCP (Ajit Pawar group) leader Sunil Tatkare on Tuesday claimed that the party had decided to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the Shiv Sena, but it did not happen for some reasons.

Tatkare, who heads the Maharashtra unit of the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, was speaking at a gathering of party workers here.

'We all NCP leaders were called for a meeting in 2009, where a plan to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with the Shiv Sena was discussed. We had almost finalized the decision. But due to some reason it could not happen,' he said.

Both the Shiv Sena and NCP split in the last two years and their respective rebel factions are now part of the Maharashtra government along with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

'In 2014 we had supported the BJP (after assembly elections), and it is not the first time that Ajit Pawar is supporting the BJP. Such situations have unfolded many times in the past....what I mean to say is what Ajit Pawar did (joining hands with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Sena) was the right thing to do,' Tatkare added.

'People who fear their own shadow are saying we went with the BJP fearing action by central agencies,' he said.

Tatkare also claimed that the Ajit Pawar-led NCP was at number two position in the gram panchayat elections results.

He appealed party workers to work for bringing the NDA led by prime minister Narendra Modi and the Mahayuti government back to power at the Centre and in Maharashtra. PTI COR CLS KRK