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Eknath Shinde on why Ajit Pawar joined his government
According to Shinde, him and him and Pawar are both “walking on the same path”.
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar joined his government to “support the state's development” and to “express his faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
According to Shinde, him and him and Pawar are both “walking on the same path”. Last year, Shinde had spearheaded a rebellion against the leadership of the undivided Shiv Sena, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
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On Sunday, Ajit Pawar led a vertical split in the NCP to become the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Along with him, eight other NCP MLAs including Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Anil Patil, and Sanjay Bansode were also sworn in as ministers in the Shinde cabinet.
Earlier in the day, Ajit Pawar said that he became the deputy CM since a majority of NCP MLAs supported him. “I enjoyed the support of maximum number of NCP legislators. Whatever we are doing is in the interest of the party. We will strengthen our party further,” he told the media.
Sharad Pawar sacks party leaders
On Sunday afternoon, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar sacked Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare from the party for anti-party activities. Patel was the national working president of the party, while Tatkare was NCP's national general secretary.
“Your actions of supporting Ajit Pawar and 8 other MLAs, who have sworn oath as ministers in violation of the party's direction and mandate, ex-facie amount to anti-party activities and that you deemed to have voluntarily left the membership of NCP,” Pawar's official statement read.
The Pawar-led party also sacked three party leaders - divisional NCP chief Narendra Rathod, Akola city district chief Vijay Deshmukh and state minister Shivajirao Garje - for attending the oath-taking ceremony of Ajit Pawar as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
