Ajit Pawar splits NCP, becomes Maharashtra's Dy CM; 3rd time since 2019

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday took oath as Maharashtra's new deputy chief minister in the BJP-Shiv Sena government after apparently breaking ranks with his uncle and party supremo Sharad Pawar and causing a split in the party.

A number of 'rebel' NCP legialators too took oath as ministers along with Pawar.

This is the third time since 2019 that Ajit Pawar has been sworn-in as the deputy chief minister.

In November 2019, after the Assembly polls and the split between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, Devendra Fadnavis and NCP's Ajit Pawar were sworn in as CM and deputy CM, respectively, in an early morning ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

The government lasted just 80 hours as Pawar was unable to cause a split in his party.

Within a month, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as CM after his party joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Agahdi (MVA) coalition.

Incidentally, Ajit Pawar, who had returned to the NCP, was the deputy CM in this government.

The MVA government fell in June last year after minister Eknath Shinde and 39 MLAs revolted against Thackeray and split the Shiv Sena.

Shinde was sworn in as chief minister on June 30 with the support of the BJP. This time, Fadnavis was made deputy CM.

While Bhagat Singh Koshyari was the governor when the first three oath-taking ceremonies took place, Sunday's political developments have come when Ramesh Bais is occupying the gubernatorial chair.

As for Ajit Pawar, he has taken seven oaths altogether as deputy chief minister in his career--first under Vilasrao Deshmukh, then under Sushil Kumar Shinde, next under Ashok Chavan,  then under Prithviraj Chavan.

Assembly polls in Maharashtra are likely to be held around October next year.