Maharashtra’s battle for the hot seat of CM hopefully ended with today’s swearing-in of the newly-elected MLAs in Mumbai. The Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena joined hands to form the alliance called the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi and agreed on Uddhav Thackrey as the Chief Minister.
The sharing of portfolios within the alliance partners will be decided over the next couple of days.
Ajit Pawar was also welcomed back into the family and party fold. He was seen hugging Sharad Pawar’s daughter and NCP MP Supriya Sule at the swearing-in ceremony.
After Ajit’s rebellion against his own party to back a BJP government led by Fadnavis on Saturday, a visibly moved Sule in her WhatsApp status had then said the Pawar family and the party had split. “Who do you trust in life. Never felt so cheated in life. Defended him, loved him. Look what I get in return,” she had said in another status post, about Ajit Pawar.
Ajit Pawar also attended the NCP MLAs meeting in Mumbai. Maharashtra NCP chief Jayant Patil and senior party leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil were also present in the meeting held at the Y B Chavan Centre. After Pawar’s appointment as the Deputy CM, he was sacked as the NCP’s legislature unit leader, but his party membership was not revoked.
Pawar was subsequently greeted with thumping of desks from NCP members when he went to the podium to take the oath.
The high drama of Maharashtra government ended yesterday with Fadnavis’s resignation hours after the Supreme Court ordered him to get the trust vote on Wednesday. The resignation confirms the perception that the BJP did not have the requisite numbers at the time that he was sworn in as CM in on Saturday morning.
After the supreme court order, Ajit Pawar who was holding the Dy CM position resigned followed by Fadnavis resignation.
