A day after Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy CM in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra and claimed support of 40 NCP MLAs in a letter given to governor Ramesh Bais, two of them - Satara MLA Makrand Patil and North Karad MLA Balasaheb Patil – returned back to Sharad Pawar's camp. The rival party factions, meanwhile, announced steps against each other's netas and filing of cross-petition before the assembly speaker for the disqualification of the opposing side's MPs.
Lok Sabha MP Sunil Tatkare and RS MP Praful Patel were expelled from the party by Pawar Senior as his first action against the nephew's group. Tatkare was appointed national general secretary, while Patel, one of Pawar's closest aides, had previously been elected to serve as the NCP's working president with Sule.
In a counter-move, Ajit’s group replaced Jayant Patil as NCP state president with Tatkare. In a replay of sorts to pleas filed by the Sena factions during last year’s political crisis, the Sharad Pawar group sent two petitions to assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar asking for disqualification of Ajit and the eight other NCP MLAs sworn in with him. In a counter, the Ajit-led group asked the Speaker to disqualify Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad.
Ajit joins Shinde-BJP govt
Earlier, Ajit Pawar joined the Shinde-Fadnavis government as deputy chief minister, dealing a severe blow to his political mentor and uncle Sharad Pawar. This marked the beginning of yet another chapter in the bizarre drama that has engulfed Maharashtra's politics for the past four years ever since the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was formed and especially since Eknath Shinde famously caused the collapse of the MVA regime by departing from the Uddhav Thackeray camp.
Ajit took oath at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan along with eight other NCP legislators. Among them were the party’s heavyweights and party founder and president Sharad Pawar’s long-time aides like Dilip Walse Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and Hasan Mushrif.
In a new development, Sharad Pawar led NCP disqualified nine rebel MLAs including Ajit Pawar who were sworn in as ministers. On the other hand, in the debate over the Leader of the Opposition, Sharad Pawar has said if Congress wants to appoint their leader of the Opposition then it would be a valid demand as the party with the maximum number of MLAs gets to appoint the LoP.