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In the last four years, Maharashtra has witnessed as many as 4 oath taking ceremonies due to defections of MLAs or governments getting toppled.
Live updates: Ajit Pawar joins Maharashtra government
The latest such ceremony took place on Sunday afternoon when NCP leader Ajit Pawar and several party MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde-led NDA government.
With Ajit Pawar’s latest move, it appears that BJP’s political saga after the 2019 assembly elections has come full circle. Or in former CM Devendra Fadnavis‘s own words, the party has managed to complete its “revenge” after the 2019 “backstabbing” by Sena.
The unravelling of MVA
Ajit Pawar’s latest rebellion exposes serious cracks in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, a three-party front that was formed to counter BJP after the 2019 elections.
In 2019, the Shiv Sena broke ranks with BJP after the election results over leadership issues and formed a coalition government with NCP and Congress.
Though strange bedfellows, the ideologically different parties managed to work out a common minimum programme in their bid to keep BJP out of power.
The BJP, which had emerged as the single largest party in the 2019 elections, was left licking its wounds after the “betrayal” from Sena.
The MVA managed to hold its fort for the first few years despite a few flashpoints here and there.
However, in 2022, the Shiv Sena, which was the largest party in MVA, saw a vertical split when Eknath Shinde and 39 other MLAs revolted against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and joined hands with BJP.
The defection of a majority of Sena MLAs led to the collpase of the MVA government, prompting Uddhav to resign as CM.
Shinde then formed a Shiv Sena-BJP government with former CM Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.
Several political leaders credited Fadnavis for engineering the split in Shiv Sena. The BJP leader himself admitted to playing a key role in the Shinde-led revolt, calling it “an act of revenge”.
Months later, the NCP is now experiencing a similar crisis after Ajit Pawar and at least 8 other MLAs took oath as ministers in the Maharashtra government.
The junior Pawar has said that almost all MLAs from his party will support the Maharashtra government, even though his uncle Sharad Pawar has played down these claims.
As per sources, Supriya Sule’s elevation in the party expedited Ajit Pawar’s decision to join the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance.
The induction of Ajit Pawar is expected to solidify BJP’s position in the Maharashtra government.
If the junior Pawar manages to bring more NCP MLAs into the fold, BJP can play hardball with the Shinde-led Sena faction and even push for a chief ministerial post for Fadnavis
While the political developments unfold in the coming days, for now, it’s effectively a BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government at the helm, 3 years after a Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP government took charge.
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