Maharashtra developments: Moments after NCP suffered a massive jolt after Ajit Pawar joined the Maharashtra government on Sunday (July 2), Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that Sharad Pawar is undeterred by the split in his party and can start afresh.
In the major turn of events, Ajit Pawar along with the MLAs supporting him joined hands with the Maharashtra government in which he was sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde government while several other MLAs took the oath as ministers.
“I just spoke with NCP Sharad Pawar. He said he is firm and people's support is behind us. We can make a fresh start with Uddhav Thackeray,” Raut tweeted.
The Uddhav faction leader said that the people of Maharashtra will not tolerate such a ‘circus’ for long. He was apparently referring to the split in NCP today.
He also took an apparent jibe at the BJP and Shiv Sena, with whom Ajit Pawar joined hands today, and said, “Some people seem to be determined to completely spoil Maharashtra's politics. Let them proceed on their chosen path.”
What CM Eknath Shinde said?
Soon after the swearing-in ceremony of the MLAs including Ajit Pawar at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the double-engine government in the state has now become ‘triple-engine’.
“Now we have 1 Chief Minister and 2 Deputy Chief Ministers. The double-engine government has now become triple engine. For the development of Maharashtra, I welcome Ajit Pawar and his leaders. Ajit Pawar's experience will help strengthen Maharashtra,” he said.
Talking about seat sharing in the cabinet, Shinde said that they have come to develop the state and there is sufficient time for the discussion on seat sharing.
“There is enough time to discuss about the seat sharing in the cabinet. We have come together to develop Maharashtra. They (the opposition) got 4-5 seats in Lok Sabha elections, this time they will not manage to get even those number of seats,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
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