Mumbai, Jul 6 (IANS): Union Minister of State for Social Justice Dr. Ramdas Athawale wholeheartedly supported breakaway Nationalist Congress Party President Ajit Pawar for his decision to join the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra.

“I met Ajit Pawar today… He made the right decision,” Dr. Athawale remarked after garlanding and felicitating the NCP leader who joined the regime of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis as the second Deputy CM on July 2.

Speaking briefly after the courtesy call on Ajit Pawar at his official residence, the Republican Party of India (A) President said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys the support of everyone in the country, whether Hindu, Muslim or Dalit.

“The PM is taking people of all communities together for the country’s development. Ajit Pawar had told me that he had been thinking of this (split) for quite some time, and it happened now,” said Dr. Athawale.

He recalled how two-three meetings were held with the BJP but they remained inconclusive, and on July 2, Ajit Pawar and his supporters split the NCP founded by Sharad Pawar.

In the past few years, Dr. Athawale had been regularly wooing and cajoling the NCP and Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs to join the NDA and strengthen the PM’s hands for the nation's progress.