For the second time in two days, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and fellow rebels on Monday met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar.
Earlier on Sunday, Ajit and fellow rebel party leaders met Sharad for the first time since their rebellion effectively split the party into two factions.
Earlier this month, Ajit and eight other NCP leaders joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government. While Ajit became the Deputy Chief Minister and got the finance portfolio, fellow rebels also got portfolios like revenue, agriculture, and medical education, among others.
After the meeting, Ajit faction's Praful Patel told media, "Today, Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare and I met Sharad Pawar at YB Chavan Centre. We again requested him to keep NCP united, and he listened to us but did not say anything on i."
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Patel further said that those MLAs —of the Ajit Pawar faction— who could not meet Sharad on Sunday were present on the meeting today.
After Sunday's meeting too, Patel had said that the Ajit faction urged NCP President Sharad to keep the party united but did not get any reaction.
This is not the first time that Ajit has rebelled against his uncle Sharad and deviated from the party line. In 2019 too, Ajit had taken oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharasthra with Devendra Fadnavis of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as Chief Minister. However, within days, he returned to the NCP fold and the Fadnavis-led government collapsed. Later, Uddhav Thackeray became the Chief Minister as the then-undivided Shiv Sena, NCP, and Congress came together to form the government under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition that Sharad is understood to have stiched. Ajit again became the Deputy CM of Maharashtra in the Uddhav ministry.
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Currently, eight NCP leaders are ministers in Shinde ministry and Ajit is among the two Deputy CMs. Fadnavis is the other Deputy CM who holds the powerful home portfolio among others in the Shinde ministry.
