New Delhi: In a dramatic turn of events, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), along with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), formed a coalition government in Maharashtra ending the month-long political crisis in the state.
BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Maharashtra CM and NCP leader Ajit Pawar was made his deputy.
Tables turned overnight as NCP, which was all this while in favour of making a non-BJP government in Maharashtra with its ally Congress and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena. Several meetings and discussions were held between the three parties and on Friday, they reached a consensus to form a coalition government under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray. However, before a final announcement could be made, Pawar played his cards and gave his support to the BJP.
Also read: Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra CM, NCP's Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM
News agency ANI reports that Pawar was a part of the meeting wherein it was decided that Fadnavis would lead Maharashtra and the NCP supremo himself gave his assent to Ajit Pawar, his nephew, to form the government with BJP.
Sources: Ajit Pawar is the leader of Parliamentary board of NCP and no decision of NCP is taken without Sharad Pawar’s assent https://t.co/gks7WGb5MQ
— ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2019
Ajit Pawar is the leader of NCP's Parliamentary Board of NCP but no decision pertaining to the party is taken without Sharad Pawar's consent.
"People had given us a clear mandate, but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties, as a result, President's Rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable government not a 'khichdi' government," Fadnavis said after taking oath as Maharashtra CM.
Ajit Pawar, meanwhile, said, "From result day to this day, no party was able to form government, Maharashtra was facing many problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stable government."
After Fadnavis and Pawar took oath as Maharashtra CM and Deputy CM, respectively, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the two leaders and said he is "confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra."
The Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena had seemingly reached the final stage to form government in Maharashtra. Earlier, Sharad Pawar had urged Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to take the CM's post in the alliance government and in the last meeting held on Friday evening, it was unanimously decided that Uddhav will be the CM.
BJP which emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra Assembly election could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on having a government under 50:50 formula and rotating the CM's post. When the BJP rejected its demand, Shiv Sena later parted its ways with the party to explore ways to form a government.
