On Wednesday evening, Sharad Pawar spoke what he will hope were the last words today on the Ajit Pawar crisis. The NCP chief reiterated that his party will do nothing to destabilise the Maharashtra government that it partners in, and that 19 NCP ministers who resigned yesterday to express solidarity with Ajit Pawar, will not be allowed to exit. "We have a government to run there," Mr Pawar, who is also the Union Agriculture Minister said. Ajit Pawar, who is Sharad Pawar's nephew, has been accused by the opposition and activists of creating a 72,000 crore swindle during his 10-year term as Water Resources Minister in Maharashtra. He resigned yesterday as Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister over those allegations triggering a political crisis.
Here are the top 10 developments in this story:
The divide within the NCP found new expression today - a meeting of state leaders in Mumbai said Ajit Pawar should withdraw his resignation, but left it to Sharad Pawar to make a final call. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel said Sharad Pawar had sanctioned his nephew's resignation and that it must be accepted by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. Ajit Pawar yesterday had said he would not change his mind about quitting the government.
His resignation last evening inspired the party's 19 other ministers to follow suit, seen by many as a gesture to prove to Sharad Pawar that his nephew has huge clout within the party in Maharashtra. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel denied that theory. "There is no question of any division within the NCP. It is purely led by Sharad Pawar. Ajit Pawar acted on his own conscience with the permission of the party president," he said.
Mr Pawar too said today, "There was demand that a white paper should be published. The Deputy Chief Minister thought he should step down; and give full support to white paper."
Mr Patel said that the NCP will not appoint a new deputy Chief Minister, that Ajit Pawar will remain the leader of the party in the state legislature.
But sources say that through its political drama, the NCP is sending important messages for the Congress - that NCP ministers are frustrated with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, and that the NCP wants to be rewarded with meaty positions in the cabinet.
Deepening the crisis today, 13 independent state legislators who support the NCP-Congress government have threatened to quit if Ajit Pawar is allowed to resign.
RTI activists and the opposition allege that during a decade-long term as Irrigation Minister, he engineered a massive swindle worth 72,000 crores, handing out inflated contracts to private firms in exchange for kickbacks, and changing the rules to give him near-complete control of the decision-making process.
The Chief Minister has irked the NCP by promising that a white paper or financial statement will be presented on the expenditure on irrigation.
The government has said on record that after spending Rs. 45,000 crore, just 0.5 per cent additional land was brought under irrigation. The NCP says 0.5 per cent land benefitted from the projects sanctioned by its leaders.
Sources close to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan say that he believes Ajit Pawar had been plotting his resignation drama for a few weeks and had been refusing to take Mr Chavan's phone calls. He opted out of a trip to Delhi with the Chief Minister on Monday. Mr Chavan then met with Sharad Pawar in Delhi, who reportedly expressed his party's concern over what it perceived as Mr Chavan's support of the accusations against Ajit Pawar.
