Journalism of Courage
Four years after former Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, tried to cause a split in the NCP and entered into a short-lived alliance with the BJP, he repeated the move once again on Sunday and joined hands with the BJP. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
After meeting the legislators, Ajit headed to the Raj Bhavan where Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also arrived with five of his ministers. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
On Monday, He took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He will be sharing the post with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
Besides Pawar, eight more MLAs took oath to join the Maharashtra government - Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dharmobaba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode and Anil Patil. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
After taking Oath, Ajit Pawar, addressed the media and said that his party decided to become part of the Eknath Shinde government for the development of the country, and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
He maintained that there was no split in NCP, he also said that they would contest all the future elections on the NCP’s name and symbol. All the elected representatives (of the party) have supported the decision to join the government, Pawar added. (Express Photos by Ganesh Shirsekar)
Meanwhile, Maharashtra got a new Leader of Opposition in Jitendra Awhad, replacing Ajit Pawar. 59-year-old Awhad, who is a three-time MLA from Mumbra, is a close associate of NCP chief Sharad Pawar and had taken a plunge into politics through student activism, protesting against rising tuition fees in colleges in 1982. In this photo,NCP chief Sharad Pawar during the press in Pune. (Express Photo By Pavan khengre)
Led by Sharad Pawar, the NCP, filed a disqualification petition against the nine NCP MLAs, including Ajit Pawar, who joined the BJP-Sena government in Maharashtra earlier on sunday. Jayant Patil, NCP state president said that the nine MLAs were disqualified the moment they took oath as ministers in the Maharashtra government. (Express Photo By Pavan khengre)
