Amit Shah shares stage with Ajit Pawar in Pune, says ‘Right place, but took too long’

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said after a long time, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is sitting at the“right place” even as it was too long for him to come. Shah who was on a Pune visit shared dais with Ajit Pawar, who recently joined BJP-Sena government in Maharashtra, leading a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Shah, who also holds the cooperation portfolio, is in Pune as part of a two-day visit, was speaking at an event organised to launch the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies office in Pune.

“Ajit Dada (Pawar) has come for the first time after becoming the deputy CM and I am sharing the stage with him, I want to tell him that after a long time, you are sitting at the right place. This was the right place but you took too long to come”, Shah said.

In his speech, Ajit Pawar said, although Amit Shah is from Gujrat, he has shown special affection for Maharashtra. “This is because he is Maharashtra’s son-in-law,” Ajit Pawar said. Shah’s wife is native of Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.

Shah’s visit to Pune also triggered speculations about another senior leader of NCP (Sharad Pawar camp) Jayant Patil switching sides. Patil however denied rumors stated, “The reports appearing in the media are misleading.” He also refuted reports about meeting Shah in Pune. “Since yesterday I am in Mumbai and meeting my party leaders including Sharad Pawar. What you are reporting is entertaining for me,” Patil said.

Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, led a vertical split in his party and joined the ruling Shiv Sena (Shinde)- BJP government on July 2. He was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister, while eight other MLAs also took oath as ministers. Besides Ajit Pawar, other leaders including Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil and Aditi Tatkare were among the NCP ministers in the Shinde cabinet.

Ajit Pawar defected to the ruling camp days after his uncle Sharad Pawar appointed Praful Patel and Supriya Sule as the working presidents of the NCP. The speculations had grown louder about Ajit joining hands with the BJP coalition of late.

In November 2019, Ajit had staged a midnight coup after he had taken oath as the deputy to Devendra Fadnavis. Sharad Pawar had managed to bring him and other NCP MLAs back to the party fold. The government collapsed after both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar had resigned in just three days.

The Shiv Sena (undivided)-Congress-NCP coalition came to power and Ajit was again sworn in as deputy CM. However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government under Uddhav Thackeray in three-and-a-half years following rebellion by Eknath Shinde who later took oath as the CM