Ajit Pawar appointed as Deputy CM: Two deputy CM in Maharashtra for the First time

Once again a twist in Maharashtra politics flabbergasted all the events that followed months of speculation as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief Sharad Pawar — had joined hands with the National Democratic Alliance on July 2nd. Although he claimed to have the support from all the MLAs, Sharad Pawar stated that he didn’t back the move.

Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra on Sunday July 2nd 2023 for the fifth time, he is setting a record of the appointment of the maximum times for this position since it was introduced in 1978. Now, Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis are holding the position of Deputy CM of Maharashtra.

Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis have become the deputy CM of Maharashtra for the very first time in the Eknath Shinde government. In 2022, Shinde, leader of Shiv Sena had formed a government with support of Bharatiya Janata Party and Devendra Fadnavis, leader of BJP took oath as deputy CM of Maharashtra. 

Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy CM for the fifth time on July 2nd 2023, and eight of his colleagues took oath as ministers in the Eknath Shinde government.

Ajit Pawar was appointed as deputy CM from 11 November, 2010 to 25 September, 2012, and again from 7 December, 2012 to 28 September, 2014.

Then he again took oath as Deputy CM on 23 November in 2019 for less than 80 hours when he joined hands with Bharatiya Janata Party after the result of Assembly Polls and break up of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance.

He went back to the National Congress Party and served as deputy CM in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government from December 30, 2019 to June 29, 2022.

Sharad Pawar, the 83 year old President of NCP states that he does not support this move, his nephew Ajit Pawar states he has full support of members of NCP’s, and calls convention for an urgent meeting with senior legislators of NCP at his residence where daughter of Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule left the meeting early.

Sharad Pawar states that “It could be difficult to digest for some people but absolutely not for me. He states that the aim will be to iterate the event of 1980 where except six of 58 MLAs had deserted me, then again I rebuilt the party from scratch.

Meanwhile sources in the NCP and BJP gave information that Ajit Pawar has the solid back of 36 out of 53 MLAs of NCP’s, the Deputy Chief Minister insisted that all of the party’s MLAs are united with him. He claimed that he has all the support from the party and all the senior leaders of the party are aware of it, but he refused to respond to the queries about his uncle’s support.

NCP’s MLAs state that on board:

Demonstrating the big turn, Ajit Pawar said that it was Evidently seen that a single party alone is able to form the government in Maharashtra, a situation that has always existed since the 1990s. Previously, NCP was aligned with the Congress and then with Shiv Sena as well, but now it is aligned with the BJP, he said.

“Several people are criticising, but we don’t give value to that and we will be  working towards the progress of the State,” he said, adding that he had abdicated as the Opposition leader in the State Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra on Friday.