Nearly a week after he likened politics with cricket to suggest that 'anything can happen' in Maharashtra, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Saturday recalled his statement to prove a point. "I had earlier said anything can happen in cricket and politics, now you can understand what I meant," Gadkari was quoted by ANI as saying. The Union minister, in his statement, had said that anything could happen in both these fields as those who appear to be losing the match might actually end up winning. Gadkari's remark comes hours after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively in a surprise move earlier today that came as a political shocker to the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, which had decided on Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray as consensus candidate for the top post. NCP chief Sharad Pawar was quick to respond to the sudden turn of events in Maharashtra politics when he said it was his nephew's personal choice to side with Fadnavis and not that of the party. Not many had an inkling of the early morning swearing-in ceremony held at the Raj Bhavan, which some called a "clandestine" affair, a far cry from Fadnavis' first such ceremony in 2014 in the packed Wankhede Stadium in presence of thousands of supporters. The oath-taking was held soon after the President's rule, imposed on November 12, was revoked. President Ram Nath Kovind signed the proclamation for revocation of the central rule and a gazette notification to this effect was issued at 5.47 am. The BJP, which won the maximum 105 seats in the 288- member House, had earlier declined to stake claim to the form government, as its alliance partner Shiv Sena (56) refused to lend support. The Shiv Sena and the NCP (54), too, couldn’t muster requisite numbers following which the Uddhav Thackeray-led party reached out to NCP and Congress, which has 44 MLA’s, for government formation.
