Hyderabad:Shortly after taking oath as Deputy Chief Minister on Sunday afternoon at Raj Bhavan, Ajit Pawar changed his Twitter bio. It now reads Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar left the party with at least 30 other MLAs to join the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government where he would share the Deputy CM post with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
Meanwhile, nine other NCP leaders also joined the Maharashtra government today. According to sources, Ajit Pawar has the support of 43 out of the 53 NCP MLAs and his Sunday move effectively leaves NCP in tatters. Apart from Ajit Pawar, the NCP leaders, who took oath as Maharashtra ministers include Anil Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal and Aditi Tatkare. The leaders took oath at the Raj Bhavan in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.