Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party rebel Ajit Pawar, who raised a banner of revolt against his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar to take oath as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-led government earlier this week, said Wednesday that he wants to become the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Speaking at the first exhaustive meeting of the rank and file of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, the newly sworn-in Deputy CM said, “I have set a record in being Deputy CM. But, my train has stopped there. I want to lead the state. I have many ideas in my mind for which I need to occupy the seat”.
This Sunday saw Ajit Pawar take oath as deputy CM for the fifth time, having first served in the position from November 2010 to September 2012 in the then Congress-NCP government under Congress CM Prithviraj Chavan and once again from October 2012 to September 2014.
And then, in the past four years, Pawar has been Deputy CM three more times — first as part of the 72-hour government of an NCP rebel group and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Devendra Fadnavis as CM, the second time in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi, and then again with Eknath Shinde as CM.
Pawar’s declaration about his CM aspirations Wednesday is seen as a veiled message to his alliance partners the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, especially at a time when the latter is jittery about the induction of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction in the government. Along with Pawar, eight other NCP leaders, including senior names such as Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse-Patil, took oath as ministers in the government.
“Ajit Pawar has spoken about his chief ministerial ambitions in the past too, but the way he said it today is definitely a message to Shinde as well as Devendra Fadnavis, saying he has a lot of plans that he can only implement if he is the CM. To Fadnavis, it seemed to be a message: ‘You have made me some promises, now fulfil them’,” political commentator Hemant Desai told ThePrint.
Following a late evening meeting of Shiv Sena functionaries at CM Shinde’s official residence, Varsha bungalow, Wednesday, minister Uday Samant told the reporters that the government will continue under the leadership of Eknath Shinde.
“Today’s meeting was to strengthen the party. There’s no question of Eknath Shinde submitting his resignation. One should stop day dreaming about it. All the three parties have come together with the thought of development.”
A minister from the Shinde side, who wished to not be named, told ThePrint that no one (MLAs) is unhappy. Everybody was strongly supporting Eknath Shinde. BJP has 100 per cent confidence in CM.”
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‘Maharashtra knows I’ve a hold on administration’
Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting, Ajit Pawar said that the plan hammered out for the NCP’s induction in the government was slightly different from one that eventually took shape Sunday.
“The plan was different. But the BJP said ‘dada, take nine seats now, we will give you others later’,” Pawar said.
Speaking about how he was unfairly denied growth opportunities in the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, he added: “The entire Maharashtra knows whether I have a hold on administration. I start my work early and work till late only so that Maharashtra can develop”.
Pawar further added that the NCP made a mistake in 2004 by giving up the CM’s position to the Congress despite securing more seats than its alliance partner in return for a few more cabinet berths. If the NCP had got the CM’s post then, he said, the party could have still held the office.
In 2004, NCP had secured 71 seats in Maharashtra’s 288-member assembly — its highest ever tally. It now has 53 MLAs, of which 32 were present at Ajit Pawar’s meeting while 16 attended the meeting called by Sharad Pawar the same day.
A source close to Ajit Pawar told ThePrint that the leader had been bargaining with the BJP for the CM’s post, but decided to not upset the equation between BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena by replacing Shinde just yet. He also said that the next few days will see another round of cabinet expansion during which more NCP MLAs will be given ministerial opportunities.
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and 15 MLAs from his Shiv Sena faction are also facing disqualification proceedings initiated against them by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). This comes after Shinde rebelled against Uddhav, who was then the chief minister, in June last year, causing the latter’s government to fall.
The Supreme Court in May gave Shinde and the 15 MLAs reprieve by putting the ball in Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s court. Narwekar, a BJP MLA, has yet to take a final decision in the matter.
Shinde camp jittery
Meanwhile, leaders from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena have been resentful about the inclusion of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction in the government.
Maharashtra has a total of 43 cabinet berths of which 23 were vacant for the cabinet’s expansion with leaders from the BJP and Shinde-led Shiv Sena sensing opportunities for themselves. After the induction of Ajit Pawar and his colleagues, this number has dropped to 14.
If more NCP MLAs are brought into the cabinet, as Ajit Pawar said was promised, the number is likely to dip further shrinking the space for the other two allies to be accommodated.
Shinde, who had gone to Nagpur Tuesday to welcome President Droupadi Murmu, returned late Tuesday night to Mumbai instead of staying the night in Nagpur as was scheduled, sources from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena said.
This is an updated version of the article.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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