Ajit Pawar sworn-in as Maharashtra deputy chief minister
On Sunday morning, Ajit met with NCP legislators at his residence in Mumbai and is likely to split NCP with at least 30 MLAs and join the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance
Ajit Pawar on Sunday took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra in the presence of chief minister Eknath Shinde and existing deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at Raj Bhavan. He will share the post with BJP leader and deputy CM Fadnavis.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal also took oath as Maharashtra minister. The other MLAs who are expected to be sworn in include Dilip Walse Patil, Hassan Mushrif, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Sunil Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, Anil Patil and Dhananjay Munde.
His swearing-in as the deputy CM with the support of at least 30 MLAs, as he claimed, indicates that he will likely split with the Sharad Pawar-led party.
This comes shortly after Ajit called an urgent meeting of NCP MLAs on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Ajit met with NCP legislators and is likely to split NCP with at least 30 MLAs and join the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance. The NCP in total has 54 MLAs.
A meeting was held at Ajit’s official residence Devgiri in Mumbai, where many senior leaders and legislators, including NCP working president Supriya Sule and Praful Patel, were present. Sule left the residence without speaking to the reporters.
NCP president Sharad Pawar, who was in Pune, said he was unaware of the meeting, but added that Ajit, as leader of the opposition in the Assembly, can call a meeting of legislators.
The development comes almost a month after Sharad Pawar named senior party colleague Praful Patel and daughter Supriya Sule the new working presidents of the party after which Ajit had offered to resign from the post of Leader of Opposition, seeking an organisational responsibility.
Ajit was rumoured to be unhappy about being denied the post of party’s state unit chief, even as he debunked media reports that he was “unhappy” after Sule and Patel were made working presidents of the outfit.
On June 21, Ajit expressed his desire to work as Maharashtra president saying, “he has no interest left in continuing in the opposition leader position and wants to show the people how to run the party”. He made the demand soon after Sule was elevated as the new working president.
