A leading Marathi newspaper had published a report that Pawar had a secret meeting with Narendra Modi on January 17. According to the newspaper, the meeting lasted for nearly 30 minutes. It was after this meeting that NCP went soft on Narendra Modi.
Senior NCP leader and union minister Praful Patel had come out in defence of Modi after Rahul Gandhi, in his now much talked out television interview, had accused Modi of complicity in 2002 Gujarat riots.
Praful Patel while disagreeing with Rahul Gandhi had said that we should respect the judicial verdict in which Narendra Modi was given a clean chit by Supreme Court.
