Eight senior NCP leaders sworn-in as Mins in Maha Govt
In the third major political earthquake that rocked Maharashtra in three-and-a- half years, senior NCP leader and leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Ajit Pawar on Sunday rebelled against his uncle and his party chief Sharad Pawar, walked out of the party with a sizeable number of supporters and took oath as Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP alliance Government.
Sunday’s development — which saw eight senior NCP leaders who had joined Ajit Pawar in his rebellion, being sworn in as Ministers in the Shinde-led Government —stunned not just Sharad Pawar but the entire Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) that suffered a similar body blow when Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde revolted against his party president Uddhav Thackeray and teamed up with senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis to topple the MVA Government and form a new Government in June last year.
Sworn-in along with Ajit dada — as Ajit Pawar is known in the State political circles — were senior party leaders and MLAs Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Sunil Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode and Anil Patil.
Ironically enough, Bhujbal and Walse-Patil have been staunch supporters of Pawar for more than three decades.
Interestingly enough, several of the former NCP Ministers and leaders who have gone with Ajit dada and their immediate relatives have been under the scanner of either Enforce Directorate (ED) or the CBI or both because of their business transactions.