Amid intense work on finalising allocations of portfolios in the next Mahayuti government, Maharashtra politics witnessed an exchange of banter between Shiv Sena chief Eknath Shinde and National Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar during a press conference held on Wednesday, a day ahead of the oath-taking ceremony of the Devendra Fadnavis government.
Pawar took a jibe at Shinde, when the Shiv Sena leader responded to a media query on whether he is taking oath as deputy chief minister, by saying that he (Pawar) will be taking oath, and Shinde may take time and decide by the evening. "Main to lunga, yeh (Shinde) sham tak time lenge (I'm going to take oath as deputy CM but Shinde will take time to decide)," Pawar said. Everybody broke into laughter during the press conference.
The chuckles propelled Shinde to react by saying, "Subah me bhi lene ka aur sham ko bhi lene ka anubhav hai inhe (Pawar) (He has experience of taking (oath) in the evening as well as in the morning). Shinde's prompt pun triggered another round of laughter.
Shinde's comment was a veiled reference to Pawar's oath as Maharashtra Deputy CM at around 5 am on November 23. This was a rare oath-taking event in the early morning. The hush-hush ceremony at the Raj Bhawan drew criticism, however, the government lasted only 80 hours as Pawar took a U-turn, compelling Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to resign.
