Mumbai: In another political drama, Leader of Opposition and Maharashtra stalwart Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar Sunday split the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and took oath as Deputy Chief Minister in the ruling alliance of Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
Earlier today, Ajit Pawar, along with nine party leaders, joined the Maharashtra government. They are Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munde, Hasan Mushrif, Ramraje Nimbalkar, Sanjay Bansode, Dharmrav Baba Atram, and Anil Bhaidas Patil.
A group of NCP legislators had earlier in the morning met at Ajit Pawar's Mumbai residence, where the party's working president Supriya Sule and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal were also in attendance. State party president Jayant Patil was not present in the meeting.
Soon later, Ajit Pawar, along with several NCP heavyweights, went to Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Ramesh Bais and hand over a letter of support signed by around three-dozen MLAs.
Shinde, Fadnavis, BJP state President Chandrashekhar Bawankule and other senior leaders of the ruling alliance followed them to Raj Bhavan.
Ajit Pawar claims the support of 43 out of the 53 NCP MLAs.
The churn in the NCP comes a month after Sharad Pawar had resigned as party chief and then decided to take it back three days later as he "couldn't disrespect the feelings of the masses".
The latest development in Maharashtra also came over a year after Eknath Shinde split the Shiv Sena that forced Uddhav Thackeray out of power.
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