‘After a long time, you’re sitting at right place': Shah to Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar

Ajit Pawar led a vertical split of his party NCP last month, and took oath as the deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government.

Updated on: Aug 6, 2023, 15:05:50 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Aryan Prakash

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Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday unveiled the digital portal of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Pune. On this occasion, he shared the stage with Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who recently joined the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government after leading a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah being received by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and others upon his arrival, in Pune on Saturday, (PTI)

“Ajit Dada (Pawar) has come for the first time after becoming the Deputy CM and I am sharing the stage with him, I want to tell him that after a long time, you are sitting at the right place. This was the right place but you took too long to come”, Shah was quoted by ANI as saying.

Ajit Pawar's coup

Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, led a vertical split in his party and joined the ruling Shiv Sena (Shinde)- BJP government on July 2. He was sworn in as the deputy chief minister, while eight other MLAs also took oath as ministers. Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil and Aditi Tatkare were among the NCP ministers in the Shinde cabinet.

Ajit Pawar defected to the ruling camp days after his uncle Sharad Pawar appointed Praful Patel and Supriya Sule as the working presidents of the NCP. The speculations had grown louder about Ajit joining hands with the BJP coalition of late.

In November 2019, Ajit had staged a midnight coup after he had taken oath as the deputy to Devendra Fadnavis. Sharad Pawar had managed to bring him and other NCP MLAs back to the party fold. The government collapsed after both Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar had resigned in just three days.

The Shiv Sena (undivided)-Congress-NCP coalition came to power and Ajit was again sworn in as deputy CM. However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government under Uddhav Thackeray in three-and-a-half years following rebellion by Eknath Shinde who later took oath as the CM

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