NCP leaders said on Monday morning said that they have brought back 4 of their missing MLAs from Gurgaon. The 4 MLAs - Anil Patil, Babasaheb Patil, Daulat Daroda and Narhari Zirwar, were held in "BJP's captivity" in Gurgaon, the NCP said. With this, Ajit Pawar is now the only NCP MLA who is supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party. Ajit Pawar had taken oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, with Fadnavis as the Chief Minister on Saturday.
Another MLA, Anna Bansode, was untraceable and his family has now located him in Pune. NCP has said Bansode will also be joining the NCP MLAs in Mumbai soon.
On Sunday, NCP had said 50 MLAs of the 54 were already supporting Sharad Pawar against his nephew Ajit Pawar and now apart from junior Pawar, no one else seems to be siding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Joining hands with rivals BJP, Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister along with Devendra Fadnavis who took oath as the chief minister in a hushed-up event at the Raj Bhavan.
With Ajit Pawar's promised support, BJP claimed it had the support of enough MLAs to form the government in Maharashtra where a party or an alliance needs 145 MLAs to be in the majority.
The newly formed Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress, on the other hand, has maintained they have the numbers in their favour and has 165 MLAs supporting the alliance. The three parties moved the Supreme Court seeking an immediate floor test and quashing of the Governor's move to swear in Devendra Fadnavis in a surprise event.
Meanwhile, NCP leaders and the Pawar family has reached out to Ajit Pawar and are making all efforts to bring him back into the party fold.
In a cryptic message on Sunday night that only added to the confusion, Ajit Pawar said, "I am in the NCP and shall always be in the NCP and Sharad Pawar Saheb is our leader. Our BJP-NCP alliance shall provide a stable Government in Maharashtra for the next five years which will work sincerely for the welfare of the State and its people."
Sharad Pawar quickly rubbished his claims of NCP supporting BJP and Devendra Fadnavis.
Also Read | Congress accuses BJP, Ajit Pawar of running away from floor test in Maharashtra
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