Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar faced a rift in the party as senior leader Ajit Pawar along with eight other leaders joined Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government on Sunday. Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister. Eight others including senior leaders of NCP Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil,, Dhananjay Munde, Dharambaba Atram joined the Maharashtra Government and took oath as ministers.
The other leaders to take the oath are Aditi Tatkare, Hasan Mushrif, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.
The discontent of Ajit Pawan in NCP was known. Earlier he had joined hands with Fadnavis in 2019 to form the government. He, however, retracted within a couple of days.
Right since the Assembly elections of 2019 Maharashtra has experienced unexpected political bombs. First Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray broke away from the Bharatiya Janata Party – Shiv Sena alliance. Before Thackeray could take any step Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. Thackeray, who broke away from BJP formed the government with NCP and Congress. Thackeray was made the Chief Minister.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde along with 40 legislators raised a voice against Thackeray’s leadership and rebelled to bring Thackeray’s Maha Vikas Aghadi government to the minority.
Eknath Shinde with BJP then formed the government with Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister.
As several BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) legislators expected their inclusion in the ministry, political activities suddenly gained pace on Sunday. Ajit Pawar with eight others took oath in the afternoon.
The rift in NCP was wide open as prominent leaders of the party joined Ajit Pawar.