Days after he offered to resign as the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly and expressed his wish to work for the NCP, Ajit Pawar called a meeting Sunday of MLAs supporting him. Ajit is said to be disgruntled after he was denied the opportunity to work as state unit chief of the Nationalist Congress Party. Earlier this week, the NCP national executive discussed the matter of his resignation and party leaders said the final decision is likely to be taken in two months. Before that, on June 25, his uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said that the party will take the decision on the demand of Ajit Pawar, who has in the past denied reports of him joining the BJP. The meeting of party MLAs is currently underway at Ajit Pawar's official residence Devgiri. There is no official word about the number of MLAs who are attending the meeting, which was supposed to be held on July 6 in the presence of Sharad Pawar. The meeting was also attended by the party's national working president Praful Patel and Supriya Sule. Sule, however, has left the meeting. On Sunday morning, NCP state president Jayant Patil held a telephonic conversation with Sharad Pawar who is in Pune. Keeping an eye on political developments, Sharad Pawar has decided to be in Pune and has reportedly cancelled all his scheduled programmes. In 2019, Ajit had joined hands with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and had taken an oath as the state's deputy chief minister along with Fadnavis as the chief minister. The rebellion, however, did not last for more than three days and Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP fold.
