Maharashtra political drama: Ajit Pawar returns to his private residence

NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who was on Saturday sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, returned to his private residence near Churchgate in the early hours of Sunday, sources said.

He spent Saturday at his brother's home in Mumbai even as his uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar attended a party meeting where most of the NCP MLAs were present.

Meanwhile, a meeting of BJP legislators is slated in Mumbai on Sunday, a day after Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister again.

The NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena are trying to ensure their MLAs are not poached.

In view of this, the NCP and Shiv Sena have moved their legislators to luxury hotels in Mumbai, while the Congress sources said they may take their MLAs to Jaipur.

In the 288-member state Assembly, the BJP government will have to prove that it has the backing of 145 legislators.

There has been no official confirmation on reports that the governor has asked Fadnavis to prove his majority in the Assembly by November 30.

In a stunning turn of events, Fadnavis on Saturday returned as chief minister propped up by Ajit Pawar, who was made his deputy, just hours after the new alliance of Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress reached a consensus that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be their chief ministerial candidate.

Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in by Koshyari at a hush hush ceremony here, leading to lifting of the President's rule in the state.

Speaking to BJP workers at the party office here after being sworn in, Fadnavis said he would give Maharashtra a strong government with Ajit Pawar's support.

Ajit Pawar's volte face created fissures in the NCP, whose chief Sharad Pawar distanced himself from his nephew's dramatic action, saying the decision to back Fadnavis was his personal choice and not that of the party.

On Saturday evening, the NCP removed Ajit Pawar as the party's legislature unit head, saying his move was not in line with the party's policies.

The Shiv Sena also approached the Supreme Court against the "arbitrary and malafide actions/decisions" of Governor Koshyari of swearing in Fadnavis.

The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.

The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post.

The Congress and the NCP, both pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats respectively.

Ajit Pawar's removal as leader of NCP legislature party is invalid: BJP

The BJP on Sunday objected to the removal of Ajit Pawar as leader of the NCP legislature party, saying it was "invalid".

Pawar was removed as the NCP's legislature unit leader on Saturday, hours after he joined hands with the BJP in a coup and took oath as deputy of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

However, raising an objection to it, BJP leader Ashish Shelar told reporters here that Ajit Pawar's replacement with Jayant Patil was done at the NCP's legislature wing meeting where all MLAs of the Sharad Pawar-led party were not present.

"The letter of support to the governor was given by Ajit Pawar as leader of the NCP's legislature party. Pawar's replacement with Jayant Patil is invalid," Shelar said.

"The petitionin the Supreme Court (filed by the Shiv Sena and others against the governor's decision of swearing in Fadnavis) doesn't challenge the October 30 appointment of Ajit Pawar as the legislature party leader," the BJP MLA said.

After the governor's decision to invite a new government to be sworn in, the change in leadership of the NCP legislature party will need to be verified by the governor, the former Mumbai BJP chief said.

In a stunning turn of events, Fadnavis on Saturday returned as chief minister propped up by Ajit Pawar, who was made his deputy, just hours after the new alliance of Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress reached a consensus that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be their chief ministerial candidate.

Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at a hush hush ceremony here, leading to lifting of the President's rule in the state.

Ajit Pawar's volte face created fissures in the NCP, whose chief Sharad Pawar distanced himself from his nephew's dramatic action, saying the decision to back Fadnavis was his personal choice and not that of the party.

On Saturday evening, the NCP removed Ajit Pawar as the party's legislature unit head, saying his move was not in line with the party's policies.

The Shiv Sena later approached the Supreme Court against the "arbitrary and malafide actions/decisions" of Governor Koshyari of swearing in Fadnavis.

The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.

The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post.

The Congress and the NCP, both pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats respectively.

Fadnavis back as Maharashtra CM as Ajit Pawar stuns NCP, Sena, Congress

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, stunned their political adversaries on Saturday morning by installing a Devendra Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra, supported by the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Ajit Pawar.

While it is advantage BJP, given that the Assembly speaker will be from the party with the power to take decisions on the applicability of the anti-defection law, the political impasse is set to continue in the state, at least till the floor test in the Assembly, slated for November 30.

The Sena-NCP-Congress combine on Saturday night filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the Maharashtra governor’s decision and demanded an immediate floor test to avoid “further horse trading”. Hearing of the plea is scheduled to commence at 11:30 am on Sunday, said Sunil Fernandes, lawyer of the three parties.

Confusion also persisted over how many of the party’s legislators supported Ajit.

At least seven of the nearly dozen who attended the oath-taking ceremony at the Mumbai Raj Bhavan at 7.30 am, seemingly returned by evening to the faction that his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar leads.

The NCP has 54 MLAs, including Ajit. Sharad Pawar exuded confidence that his MLAs would stick by him, and Fadnavis’ government would fail the floor test.

ALSO READ: Drama shifts to Assembly as Maharashtra holds its breath for floor test

Pawar added that his MLAs would rather face disqualification than support the Fadnavis-led government.

MLAs of NCP’s ally Congress may be flown to Jaipur on Sunday to ward off any poaching bid, a party leader said on Saturday night.

chartSources in the BJP, hinting that the Speaker of the Assembly would be from the party, were confident of passing the floor test.

They said Ajit was the NCP legislature party chief and it was unlikely that the MLAs would risk disqualification by defying the party whip.

They also said all the MLAs did not need to attend the ceremony in person, and it sufficed that Ajit submitted the letter of support signed by all the MLAs. Pawar senior said the letter of support was for the proposed Sena-led coalition government, which his nephew had since he heads the legislature party.

Sharad Pawar said he was not aware if his nephew decided to support the BJP out of the fear of the Enforcement Directorate. Ajit is named in the multi-crore Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam. He rejected speculation that Ajit “betrayed” him because of the power struggle with Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule. Sharad Pawar said his daughter was not interested in state politics.

Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar, without mentioning Pawar senior by name but alluding to his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week in the national capital, alleged the NCP chief not just knew of his nephew’s plans, but is a party to it.

“Some leaders of the NCP met with the PM and Amit Shah. The purpose (of the meeting) was stated to be to discuss issues concerning rain-hit farmers. Two days ago, Maharashtra governor announced compensation to farmers. The perception that something was fishy started developing from the point (Pawar-Modi) meet),” Ambedkar said.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala termed it a “black chapter” in India’s history, accusing the BJP of acting as a “contract killer” of democracy and the governor proving to be BJP chief Amit Shah’s “hitman”. However, there were fears in the party that some of its MLAs might also defect.

chartsThe BJP defended the government formation as the need of the time and vindication of the people’s mandate. The PM congratulated Fadnavis and Ajit in a tweet.

To questions whether the cabinet approved revocation of the President’s rule, home ministry officials said the government invoked special provisions of the Constitution. President Ram Nath Kovind signed the proclamation for revocation of the central rule and a gazette notification to this effect was issued at 5.47 am.

A senior home ministry official said the approval was given by the central government by invoking a special provision of The Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules which gives the prime minister special powers. The Rule 12 says: "Departure from Rules.- The Prime Minister may, in any case or classes of cases, permit or condone a departure from these rules, to the extent he deems necessary". The prime minister gave this approval, which acts as post-facto approval of the Union Cabinet, the official said.

Betrayal of people's mandate, says Congress on Maharashtra govt formation

The Congress hit out at Devendra Fadnavis being sworn-in as the Maharashtra chief minister on Saturday, saying it was a "betrayal of people's mandate".

The month-long political impasse in Maharashtra ended dramatically on Saturday with the BJP's Fadnavis returning as the chief minister, backed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

NCP's Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as the deputy chief minister. "This is called betrayal of people's mandate and giving contract for killing democracy," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet.

He also tagged media reports on allegations of Ajit Pawar's involvement in scams.

Earlier, senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi expressed surprise at the political developments in Maharashtra and said the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations took too long as the window was grabbed by "fast movers".

"Surreal what I read about Maharashtra. Thought it was fake news. Candidly and personally speaking, our tripartite negotiations should not have gone on for more than 3 days...took too long. Window given was grabbed by fast movers. Pawarji tussi great ho," he said in a tweet.

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