Sharad Pawar vs Ajit Pawar: Big Political Drama in Maharashtra
One year after the Shiv Sena had a split after the rebellion of Eknath Shinde, now Ajit Pawar has led the second rebellion against the NCP.
One year after the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray had a split after the rebellion of Eknath Shinde with his 40 supporters, now Ajit Pawar has led the second rebellion. According to his aides, Ajit Pawar has 43 MLA with him out of 53 NCP MLAs. On 2nd July Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy chief minister along with eight people of his party as various ministers. The other NCP leaders who took oath today are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmarao Atram, Anil Patil and Sanjay Bansode.
Ajit’s rebellion is similar to Shinde’s: Form a group of majority of MLAs, declare support to the government with the BJP, claim to be the original party. While Shinde succeeded in taking control of the party, what happens in the next few days will decide whether Ajit manages to get the NCP. Ajit Pawar faces the same challenge now to prove his majority within the party.
Now there will be a confusion on which is the 'real' NCP? The party's working president Praful Patel said, "We are one party and Sharad Pawar is our leader. Nobody has defected or broken away from the party. Sometimes there are differences within the party and it gets resolved. You wait for some more days and you'll see what I mean.” However, Praful Patel was among the NCP leaders who went with Ajit Pawar and was present at the Raj Bhavan during Mr Pawar's shock move.
After the oath ceremony, the new deputy Chief Minister insisted that he had the support of the "entire NCP". However, when a journalist asked Sharad Pawar who the face of NCP would be? He replied, "Sharad Pawar". Sharad Pawar, "I am not upset with anybody except Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare. Praful Patel was made the working President last month. Tatkare, whose daughter Aditi took oath as minister, was appointed as the national General Secretary of NCP. They broke the guidelines of the party President and took the wrong path. They have no right to remain in that position.”
It is for the third time in four years that Ajit Pawar takes up the role of deputy chief minister under three chief ministers-- Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. In November 2019 after the Assembly elections and the split between the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena, the government of Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, were sworn in at an early morning ceremony. It lasted just 80 hours and Sharad Pawar called him back to NCP. Then the Maha Vikas Aghadi was formed and Ajit Pawar became the Deputy CM with Uddhav Thackeray as the CM. Now, he has become Dy. CM for the third time with Eknath Shinde as CM. We will have to wait and watch what happens now in Maharashtra.
