NCP chief Sharad Pawar has refuted reports which claimed that the newly-formed Ministry of Cooperation at the Centre may "hijack the cooperative movement" in Maharashtra. The concept is not new, but the Centre cannot interfere in the state's cooperative sector, Pawar told reporters in Baramati town.

"As per the Constitution, cooperative institutions registered in a state come under the (jurisdiction of that respective) state," he said. The Centre's newly-formed ministry is about multi-state cooperative institutions, the former Union minister said. "A state cannot control a cooperative institution registered in more than one state, which is called multi-state, and the central government has control over it," said Pawar, whose party shares power with the Shiv Sena and Congress in Maharashtra.