Saturday Maha drama: BJP’s ‘surgical strikes’ to NCP’s ‘ghar wapsi’

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday joined hands with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), taking oath as the deputy of chief minister Devendra

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday joined hands with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), taking oath as the deputy of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis early in the morning, hours after NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena leaders discussed the modalities to form the next government.

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The political coup in Raj Bhavan took shape late on Friday night, as Ajit was apparently unhappy with the pace of the talks of the Congress-NCP-Sena combine and insecure about the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case in Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank scam and irrigation scam probe against him.

BJP first made an offer to him nearly 10 days ago, soon after the President’s rule was imposed in the state, according to party insiders.

As party leader of BJP, Fadnavis reached Raj Bhavan around 12.30am to stake claim to form the next government. By then Ajit, the group leader of NCP, had given him a support letter of 54 of his party MLAs.

Fadnavis proved BJP’s majority in front of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, on the strength of BJP’s 105 legislators, NCP’s 54 MLAs and 11 independent legislators. This took their strength, at least on paper, to 170 in a 288-member House, 25 more than the half way mark of 145.

Koshyari’s report to the Centre asking it to withdraw the President’s rule was sent around 2.30am and the Centre’s notification removing it came at 5.47am, said a senior BJP leader. By 8am, it was fait accompli even as morning newspapers headlined the likelihood of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray being the next chief minister.

“We gave a support letter of NCP’s 54 MLAs and 11 independent legislators, besides our own members. Even if NCP splits, we are confident of 29 MLAs backing Ajit Pawar and us. Also, in the changing scenario, we will get support from a majority of independent MLAs,” said a senior BJP leader.

He said, “This was Fadnavis’s move and was cleared by BJP’s central leadership, when it became evident that the three parties were close to forming the government. The meeting between PM Modi and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday became a turning point. A majority of the state BJP leaders were informed only in the morning, minutes before or after the oath-taking ceremony.”

Soon after Fadnavis took oath, Modi and Union minister Nitin Gadkari were among the first two to congratulate him on Twitter.

After the President’s rule was imposed, BJP insiders said, feelers were sent to Ajit by Fadnavis, while the central leadership also got in touch with NCP chief. The BJP was also exploring the option of letting the Congress-NCP-Sena form the government and engineering a break up on the lines of Karnataka, by getting NCP on its side. However, it is learnt that Fadnavis was against it as he believed that once this government got formed, it would be difficult to break it up.

“There was a need to form a stable government in Maharashtra. I want to thank Ajit Pawar for giving us this support. Along with Pawar, there are a section of MLAs and other independent legislators, who are supporting us. We will now prove our majority on the floor of the house,” said Fadnavis.

Nearly 29 independent and small parties’ representatives were elected in the state Assembly polls. The BJP now expects around 15 of these legislators to support its government.