Ajit Pawar will share the post with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis.
Nationalist Congress Party's senior leader Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra in the Eknath Shinde-led government today. Ajit Pawar's move comes weeks after his cousin Supriya Sule was announced as the working president of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Ajit Pawar is the nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar.
The year-long Eknath Shinde - Devendra Fadnavis cabinet was expanded with the induction of nine ministers. Along with Ajit Pawar, eight other NCP MLAs took oath today. The oath-taking ceremony took place - in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis - at Raj Bhawan.
State Governor Ramesh Bais administered the oath to NCP Leader Ajit Pawar as the second Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He will share the post with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis.
The Governor also gave oaths to 8 other ministers:
Chhagan Bhujbal
Dilip Walse-Patil
Hasan Mushrif
Dhananjay Munde
Dharmarao Baba Atram
Aditi Tatkare
Sanjay Bansode
Anil Patil
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut took a dig at Ajit Pawar for jumping ship and taking oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, in the Shinde-led government. Mr Raut stated that the people of Maharashtra will not tolerate this game. The Rajya Sabha MP also shared a conversation he had with NCP's Sharad Pawar.
“Some people have taken up the task of cleaning up Maharashtra politics. Let them have their way. I just had a talk with Sharad Pawar. He said "I am strong. We have the support of the people. We will rebuild everything again with Uddhav Thackeray."
Yes, people will not tolerate this game for long,” Sanjay Raut tweeted.
In another tweet, Mr Raut claimed that the BJP government was about to put Chhagan Bhujbal and other NCP leaders, present at the Raj Bhawan, in jail. "BJP was about to send them to jail. They are taking the oath of office of minister,” he wrote.
After the oath, the new deputy chief minister appeared at a press conference with Praful Patel. Ajit Pawar claimed he has the support of practically the entire party. Following the steps of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, he also staked claim to the party's name and symbol.