E-Paper
When did it all start? Tracing Ajit Pawar's long history of revolt and rebellion
The recent move by Ajit Pawar can be traced back to the time when he came out and criticised Sharad Pawar in public for the first time.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that they were already aware of the recent move by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and few party MLAs to join the NDA-led Maharashtra government.
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Similarly, Congress MLA Vijay Namdevrao Wadettiwar said the move was ‘expected’ but the series of events unfolded ‘unexpectedly’.
Why is it that Ajit Pawar's surprise move to join the Maharashtra assembly as the deputy chief minister doesn't seem unexpected after all? It could be traced back to his long history of revolt and rebellion against the party leadership.
For long, Ajit Pawar has reised the banner of revolt in the NCP – he took oath as the dy CM thrice in last three years.
When did it all start?
Ajit Pawar's disgruntlement against the party leadership is nothing new. It was in 2009 when he first came forward to openly criticise his uncle Sharad Pawar's decision making and leadership style.
Even then, Ajit was eyeing for the dy CM post which was eventually offered to now Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal. This created a rift in the party leading to Ajit Pawar threatening to resign. Later, he reconciled with Sharad Pawar and returned to party.
In 2019, Ajit carried out a surprise move and joined hands with BJP to form government along with Devendra Fadnavis after the assembly elections, claiming that he had support of several NCP MLAs. He sworn in as dy CM in a government which only lasted for 80 hours because he failed to create split within his party.
Later, he returned to his own party fold and again took oath as dy CM, this time as a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition.
Following the collapse of the MVA government, speculations were rife regarding Ajit Pawar switching sides. In the middle of the Supreme Court hearing on Eknath Shinde and other Shiv Sena MLAs revolting against Uddhav Thackeray, Ajit Pawar was rumoured to side with BJP as a rescue measure of a possible adverse verdict.
