Despite his revolt against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar and his being sworn in as Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis as Chief Minister, the NCP has yet not given up its attempts to bring Ajit Pawar back to the party.
NCP’s senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal, State unit president Jayant Patil and senior leader Dilip Walse-Patil held a meeting for over four hours with Mr. Ajit Pawar at Vidhan Bhavan to convince him. After the meeting, speaking to reporters, Mr. Bhujbal said, “The talks were positive. We have informed him that the party will welcome him and he too should come back to the party of which he was the founding member.”
Interestingly, even as Mr. Fadnavis assumed charge as CM on Monday and held a meeting with officials, Mr. Ajit Pawar is yet to take the reins of his office. BJP sources informed that since the portfolio distribution has not been made, Mr. Pawar did not assume his duties as deputy CM is not a constitutional post.
Meanwhile, all but two of the 54 NCP MLAs have returned to the party.
“Anna Bansode of Pimpri and Ajit Pawar are the only two MLAs who are not with us at present. But I am sure that both will soon return to the NCP,”said Mr. Patil.
