Ajit Pawar resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister on Tuesday. (File)
Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has forgiven his nephew Ajit Pawar, who helped the BJP pull an incredible coup last week to form government in Maharashtra that collapsed within four days, party leader Nawab Malik said this afternoon. "In the end, he admitted his mistake. It is a family matter and Pawar Sahib has forgiven him. He is very much in the party and his position in the party has not changed," Mr Malik told news agency ANI.
Ajit Pawar resigned as the Deputy Chief Minister on Tuesday nearly 80 hours after he took oath of office at a quiet, early morning ceremony that suddenly flashed on TV screens on Saturday. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's resignation followed next hours after the Supreme Court had ordered a floor test in Maharashtra as the party admitted it did not have the support of enough MLAs to clear the floor test.
On Sunday, Ajit Pawar had claimed in a battery of tweets that he had his uncle on board when he decided to support the BJP. An immediate denial came from Pawar Senior, who called Ajit Pawar's statement "false and misleading in order to create confusion".
The BJP, which won 105 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly, needed 40 MLAs to prove a majority. The party had banked on Ajit Pawar to bring in 54 NCP MLAs, but the gamble didn't pay; hardly anyone followed "Ajit-Dada".
Sharad Pawar, 78-year-old veteran of Maharashtra politics, had led the efforts to bring his nephew back into the party's fold by paring down public attacks on him despite the stunning mutiny. Sharad Pawar's family, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to placate Ajit Pawar, sources said.
Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP family this morning with a warm hug from cousin Supriya Sule outside the Maharashtra assembly. "There is no question of return, I am with the NCP and have been with NCP," Pawar junior told NDTV as he walked into the assembly for his oath as MLA.
The NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress combine claimed support of 166 MLAs in a letter to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Tuesday. Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be sworn in tomorrow at Mumbai's sprawling Shivaji Park as Chief Minister of the coalition government.