Nationalist Communist Party leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in a shock rerun of 2019 when his tenure in the Maharashtra government was abruptly cut short. This is Ajit Pawar’s third tenure as the Deputy CM — he first took oath with Devendra Fadnavis as CM and then again when he returned to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray.

On Sunday, Ajit Pawar reached the Raj Bhawan soon after calling an urgent meeting of NCP MLAs on Sunday. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde too reached the Raj Bhawan. Pawar claims the support of over 40 MLAs and hasn’t joined the BJP as was being speculated a few months ago.

Ajit Pawar’s second jolt to the NCP led by Sharad Pawar comes as a repeat of what Eknath Shinde did to the then undivided Shiv Sena led by then CM Uddhav Thackeray. That mutiny had resulted in the fall of the MVA government and Shinde’s ascent to the post of Chief Minister.

“Now this government will run at a bullet train’s speed. I welcome Ajit Pawar and his colleagues in the government,” CM Shinde said after the swearing-in of Pawar and other leaders of the NCP as ministers.

Also Read: NCP’s Ajit Pawar sworn in as deputy CM in Eknath Shinde-led Maha govt

The eight NCP leaders who joined the Maharashtra government include Chaggan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dharmobaba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, and Anil Patil.

The development comes just days after Ajit Pawar was snubbed by his uncle, Pawar senior, who elevated his daughter and party MP Supriya Sule as one of the two working presidents of the party. While Pawar claimed that the elevation of Sule had Ajit’s consent, the development was seen as a major setback for the Deputy CM who has never hidden his ambitions to gain a more significant role in the party.

In May this year, Sharad Pawar resigned as the party president, a move that now appears was an attempt to block Ajit’s attempt at a mutiny. Experts believe that senior Pawar got a whiff of what Ajit was planning and engineered his resignation as a ploy to stem the possible revolt and assert his support within and control over the party.

Also Read: NCP leaders meet at Ajit Pawar’s Mumbai residence; Sharad Pawar says unaware of meeting

The dissatisfaction had, however, begun to build up for Ajit Pawar who claimed that he never expected to be appointed as the Leader of Opposition and it was a post he never aspired for. “I have worked for many years in the party. I have worked in many posts. The post of Opposition leader is not what I demanded. It was on insistence by party MLAs who signed on a letter that I chose the position … but now I want to give up the Leader of the Opposition post,” he said at the NCP’s foundation day programme at Shanmukhananda Hall in Mumbai attended by Sharad Pawar and other senior leaders.

Ajit Pawar will now share the Deputy CM’s post with Devendra Fadnavis, the former Chief Minister and BJP leader with whom he briefly served in 2019. According to government sources, AJit Pawar has resigned as the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.