Oppn's demand on Rafale 'made no sense', don't doubt PM's intention: Pawar

Former Defence Minister Pawar also said the opposition's demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jet "made no sense".

At a time the opposition led by the Congress is mounting attacks on the government over the Rafale fighter jet issue, NCP chief Sharad Pawar has said people "do not have doubts" over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intentions.

In an interview to a Marathi news channel, former Defence Minister Sharad Pawar also said the opposition's demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jet "made no sense".

He, however, said there was no harm for the government to disclose prices of the aircraft.

"I don't think people have doubts about Modi's intentions personally," Pawar told the news channel.(Business Standard)

He, however, said the way Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the government's side led to confusion in the minds of people

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"Now, (Union Finance Minister Arun) Jaitley can be seen articulating (government's stand) on the issue (instead of Sitharaman)," he added.

The Congress has launched an offensive against the BJP government over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It has accused the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by bypassing state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in favour of some businessman "friends" for offset contract.

BJP to go alone in Maharashtra? Amit Shah meets leaders, sparks speculation

Shah also reviewed the BJP's performance of 2014 polls, as Maharashtra is the second largest state in the country going by the number of Lok Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh.

BJP president Amit Shah on Sunday held a closed-door assessment meeting of senior party leaders here with the focus on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and strengthening the cadre in Maharashtra.

After attending the meetings, Shah met melody queen Lata Mangeshkar at her home in south Mumbai as part of the party's "contact for support" campaign.

Earlier in the day, the BJP chief, who was supposed to reach Mumbai before noon, landed at the city airport at 1 PM due to some developments in New Delhi.

He spent the entire day in 'Vasant Smruti' building, the BJP headquarter, in south-central Mumbai, a BJP official said.

At the meeting, Shah laid down a 23-point working strategy and discussed issues such as increasing the party strength, addressing new voters' groups based on their profession, gender, likings etc and a regular follow up of the voters by the local party workers.

"The national president plainly stated that the strategy has to be implemented in all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the state. At present, the BJP shares its political space with the Shiv Sena and a couple of smaller allies. It is a message that says 'prepare for contesting elections alone'. We will have to rush as the general election are now less than a year away," said a senior BJP minister who attended the meeting.

Shah also reviewed the BJP's performance of 2014 polls, as Maharashtra is the second largest state in the country going by the number of Lok Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh.

Of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, BJP had won 23, the Shiv Sena (18), the NCP four, the Congress two, and the Swabhimani Paksh, a former ally of the BJP, one.

Apart from meeting the 'Vistaraks' of the party whose mandate is to increase the network of the BJP in different geographies, Shah also interacted with the members of the 'Lok Sabha Toli', a group that consists of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state unit chief Raosaheb Danve, Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar, Chandrakant Patil and Pankaja Munde, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, among others.

"The mandate of the group is to identify weaknesses of the party in certain areas, (ways) to overcome them and the current key issues related to the people of Maharashtra. The candidates who had contested and won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the current image of the candidates in the same constituency was also discussed at the general-level in this meeting," the BJP official said.

He said the BJP is also mulling over holding some events with a view to demonstrate its strength and communicate with the people.

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