New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday said that NCP rebel Ajit Pawar joining the Maharashtra government as deputy chief minister exposed the BJP and showed that the saffron party’s earlier experiment of breaking Shiv Sena had failed.
On his part, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who has been a former in charge of Maharashtra, is tracking the developments which are still unfolding, said party insiders. “NCP rebel Ajit Pawar joining the state government exposes the BJP and shows that the saffron party’s 2022 experiment of breaking Shiv Sena has failed. The BJP broke Shiv Sena last year and made rebel Eknath Shinde the chief minister to oust the Maha Vikas Aghadi government headed by Uddhav Thackeray,” AICC secretary in charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
“Now, NCP rebel Ajit Pawar joining the Shinde-Fadnavis government is bad news for the chief minister. The BJP used him to break the Shiv Sena. It seems Eknath Shinde’s utility for the BJP is over and he may soon be out of the state government. The BJP needed a Maratha face in Maharashtra and Ajit Pawar fits the bill. He may become chief minister soon,” he said.
The Congress reiterated the MVA would not be affected by the latest developments which basically showcased an internal NCP feud. "Since the NCP’s leadership change issue surfaced recently, we had been speculating that Ajit Pawar, who was not made Sharad Pawar’s successor, would be upset. But his joining the Shinde-Fadnavis government shows the BJP is behind the entire episode. They had lured him in 2019 and they have lured him again.
They wanted to weaken the MVA ahead of the assembly and the Lok Sabha polls. Ajit’s exit may dent the NCP as he claims several MLAs are with him but for us, Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are the party. How Sharad Pawar deals with the issue remains to be seen but the MVA is going to be intact,” said Dua.
The AICC in-charge further said that the latest NCP crisis was deep-rooted as even senior party leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal and Aditi Tatkare, who were Sharad Pawar’s loyalists, had joined the state government along with Ajit Pawar. The MVA government was formed in 2019 when Uddhav Thackeray decided to part ways with long-time ally BJP and joined hands with NCP and Congress.
The Congress, which had just 44 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, had been initially reluctant to support a Sena leader as chief minister but was later convinced by NCP’s Sharad Pawar, who played the king-maker.
In June last year, the BJP took its revenge on Uddhav by engineering a split in the Shiv Sena and making rebel Eknath Shinde the new chief minister. Former chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was named the deputy chief minister to ensure that Shinde brought the majority Sena MLAs along with him.
After the last year’s split, there was a tug-of-war between the Shinde and the Thackeray factions who claimed that they were the original Sena. Both Shinde and Thackeray claimed to be the real custodians of the Shiv Sena formed by Uddhav’s father late Bala Saheb Thackeray. Later, the Election Commission allotted the party symbol to the Shinde faction leaving the Shiv Sena UBT a separate party. Since then, the Congress, Sena UBT and NCP have been fighting the BJP together and plan to do so for the 2024 national polls.
Also read: CM Shinde welcomes Ajit Pawar, says Maharashtra govt now 'triple engine'
