Ajit Pawar surprises NCP by allying with BJP to make Fadnavis CM; Sharad 'clueless'

BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister for the second time with Ajit as his deputy after the NCP leader claimed 35 of his party MLAs have supported the saffron outfit.

Though the tally of BJP-NCP is still five short of the majority mark (145), the saffron party is likely to cobble up the number with the support of the Independent MLAs.

Feeling dumped, Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson, Sanjay Raut, said the NCP has back-stabbed his party which fell out with the BJP over its demands of 50:50 power share in the Maharashtra government and rotational Chief Ministership.

All the developments on the western soil took place barely a few hours after Sharad Pawar last night informed his party, Shiv Sena and Congress will form the Maharashtra government with Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister.

Apparently looking clueless, Sharad Pawar rejected Ajit's decision and said in a tweet,"Ajit Pawar's decision to support the BJP to form the Maharashtra Government is his personal decision and not that of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his."

Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar called a meeting of his party MLAs at 4:30 in the evening amidst the cheer in the BJP camp exactly a month after the assembly poll results were declared.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is definitely the poster-boy of the BJP, jumped to congratulate Fadnavis and Ajit hoping for their "diligent work" in Maharashtra.

Modi tweeted, "Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra."

Union Home Minister and BJP national president Amit Shah too congratulated the Fandavis-Ajit duo.

Though former Maharashtra Chief Minister and top Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan evaded any question related to the political coup, other senior leader Ahmed Patel trained his guns at the BJP saying, "The democracy has been ridiculed."

Despite a prevailing silence in the Congress, party leader Sanjay Nirupam, who was against the Congress' decision to go with the Sena right from the beginning, said, "Today Congress has been exposed. It was a chalked-out plan to make Congress align with Shiv Sena. Several party leaders gave wrong inputs to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Time has come to remove those leaders and employ the ones who are efficient."

"Also I want to urge Rahul Gandhi to comeback and lead the party in a new way," the Congress leader said.