Maharashtra Government: Devendra Fadnavis Takes Oath As Chief Minister, NCP’s Ajit Pawar His Deputy

Ajit Pawar took false documents to the Raj Bhawan yesterday which the Governor then accepted, said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, in conversation with ANI. “Even if today, Governor asks us to prove majority, we can do it right now. 49 NCP MLAs are with us,” he said. In total, Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine have 165 MLAs, he added.

Raut went on to say that Ajit Pawar has made the “biggest mistake of his life by backstabbing Sharad Pawar at this age”.

The Supreme Court of India is set to hear the joint petition by Shiv Sena, National Congress Party and Congress against the appointment of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra’s chief minister, at 11:30 a.m. today.

The petition will be heard by a three-judge bench comprising of Justice NV Ramana, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Sanjiv Khanna. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi to appear for the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party in Supreme Court today.

This comes after a day of dramatic politics which included allegations of kidnapping and blackmail among other multiple plot twists in the story of Maharshtra’s government formation which culminated in Devendra Fadnavis swearing in as the chief minister.

In The Meanwhile...

In the morning, the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to have outwitted everyone to come to power in Maharashtra. Hours later, Nationalist Congress Party Chief Sharad Pawar seems to have engineered a comeback. And it’s still not over yet.

His nephew Ajit Pawar, the man at the centre of the drama, was sacked as the legislature party leader by the NCP on Saturday evening. That dealt a blow to the BJP’s math as the party had claimed support from at least 35 NCP legislators after Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered oath to Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and Ajit Pawar as his deputy early in the morning, and asked them to prove majority by Nov. 30.

The BJP with 105 MLAs in a 288-member state assembly had fallen short after Shiv Sena with 56 MLAs split the alliance seeking the chief minister’s post. Last night, Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had emerged as the consensus leader for the alliance between the Shiv Sena, the NCP (54) and the Congress (44). But things changed overnight.

No one knew when the BJP and Ajit Pawar staked claim, and when the President’s Rule in the state was revoked—it later turned out that the notification came at 5:47 a.m. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s congratulatory twitter post broke the news to most people in the morning, setting off a day packed with drama.

Sharad Pawar and Thackeray went into damage control, calling a joint press conference. Pawar senior called his nephew’s decision to support the BJP his personal call and threatened action against him, saying the alliance was intact and had the support of NCP.

After series meetings and press conferences, his party’s MLAs who were at the rival camp’s morning oath ceremony started trooping back—at least nine had returned by evening. Sharad Pawar installed loyalist Jayant Patil as the head of the legislative group till a new leader is elected.

Meanwhile, the alliance moved the Supreme Court against the governor’s decision to call Fadnavis to form the government, terming his action “malafide” and “unconstitutional”.

Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress moved the Supreme Court against Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision to swear in BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra’s chief minister. They called the action “arbitrary and malafide” and sought an urgent hearing, according to Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat. The top court’s registry accepted the petition.

“The decisions of the governor are ex facie illegal, unconstitutional and in the teeth of the well settled law laid down by the Supreme Court,” the petition said. The governor’s actions are a text-book example of him acting “at the behest of a political party in power at the centre”.

The governor had administered oath to Fadnavis and NCP’s Ajit Pawar— as deputy chief minister—early in the morning, setting off a series of claims and counterclaims from Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress and the BJP about support to the form the government.

The MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party removed Ajit Pawar as the leader of the legislature party, in another twist to the swearing-in drama that kicked off early in the morning, the PTI reported.

At least nine NCP MLAs who attended swearing-in of Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra returned to the party fold and expressed solidarity with party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday evening, according to the PTI.

Meanwhile, NCP workers protested in Thane against Ajit Pawar for betraying the party, the agency reported.

The BJP called the surprise early-morning swearing in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra chief minister and the NCP’s Ajit Pawar as his deputy as a moral and electoral victory of the party.

“How did a mandate to sit in the opposition turn into a game of match-fixing to grab the chair,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, Law and Justice, and Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Minister, said in a press conference referring to alliance talks between the BJP’s estranged partner Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress.

“This was a conspiracy to control the financial capital of the country through the backdoor. Those who can’t keep alive Balasaheb’s (Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackery’s) ideals alive, I have nothing to comment,” he said.

“In the morning, apart from the collective claim of the BJP and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, showing clear majority numbers, there was no counter-claim present before the governor. The governor has taken a call, and on the floor of Vidhan Sabha, a proper, effective majority shall be proved.”

Congress’ Ahmed Patel said the Maharashtra governor administered oath to CM and Deputy CM without verifying Ajit Pawar’s list.

There has been no delay on Congress’ part, meetings began day after Thackeray’s call, he added. “All the three [Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena] parties are together in this and I am confident we will defeat BJP in the trust vote. All Congress MLAs are present here except two who are right now in their village, but they too are with us. ,” Patel claimed.

Meanwhile,

Let them [BJP] try and break Shiv Sena MLAs, Uddhav Thackeray said at the press conference, “Maharashtra will not stay asleep.”

Sharad Pawar said action against Ajit Pawar will be taken as per the party procedure.

Pawar said: “Parties had their MLAs list signed by all MLAs, a similar list of NCP was with Ajit Pawar, as he is legislature party leader of NCP. I assume that he has submitted the same list. I am not sure about this but I suspect that this may be the case. We will discuss with Governor.”

Pawar added a new NCP legislative party leader will be elected at 4 p.m. today.

NCP MLA Rajendra Shingane talks to reporters at the press conference.

He said: “Ajit Pawar had called me to discuss something and from there I was taken with other MLAs to Raj Bhavan. Before we could understand, the oath ceremony was complete. I rushed to Pawar sahab and told him I am with Sharad Pawar and NCP.”

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar says Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP leaders came together to form government as they had the numbers. “We had our official numbers—44, 56 and 54 MLAs—with us who had supported the government. Several independents were also with us and we had numbers around 170.”

Sharad Pawar says:

• NCP MLAs who have followed Ajit Pawar could face Anti-Defection Law action.
• Around 10-11 NCP MLAs were at Raj Bhavan with Ajit Pawar.
• Some MLAs who were with Ajit Pawar at Raj Bhavan, then got in touch with me, reported events.

NCP Chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray to address the media at 12:30 p.m. Pawar has also called a meeting of all NCP MLAs at 4:30 p.m.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik told reporters: "We had taken signatures from MLAs for attendance, it was misused as a basis for the oath."

Meanwhile,

Maharashtra BJP President Chandrakant Patil said Sanjay Raut should now at least keep silent. “He has ruined Shiv Sena,” he told reporters.

Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut addressed media and said that Ajit Pawar was with them till the last moment but claimed that his body language was “suspicious.”

Raut said Pawar said he was going to meet a lawyer. "Now we have learnt which lawyer he was sitting with," Sanjay Raut said.

Raut assured the reporters that Sharad Pawar had nothing to do with the turn of events this morning. Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar will meet, may hold a joint presser today, he informed.

Ajit Pawar's decision to support the BJP to form the Maharashtra government is his personal decision and not that of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar tweeted.

Senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Saturday expressed surprise at the political developments in Maharashtra and said the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations took too long as the window was grabbed by "fast movers".

Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who was at the forefront of the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations, said illegal and evil manoeuvres took place in the secrecy of midnight.

"Such was the shame that they had to do the swearing in hiding. This illegitimate formation will self destruct," he said in a tweet.

The President's rule imposed in the country's second-largest state was revoked at 5:47 a.m. on Saturday, according to a Home Ministry notification. That’s around two hours before the oath taking ceremony.

On Nov. 12, President Ram Nath Kovind approved a proclamation imposing President’s Rule in Maharashtra, following a recommendation from Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

Ajit Pawar after taking oath as Deputy CM: From result day to this day no party was able to form government. Maharashtra was facing many problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stable government.

According to ANI report quoting unnamed sources, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar was part of discussions for Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government formation, he had given his assent to Ajit Pawar.

Ajit Pawar is the leader of the Parliamentary board of NCP and no decision of NCP is taken without Sharad Pawar’s assent.

In a surprise move, BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis today took oath as the Maharashtra chief minister for the second consecutive term while NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister.

This comes in even as talks between Congress, NCP, and Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday. NCP Chief Sharad Pawar yesterday said there was a consensus on Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership.

Maharashtra has been stuck in a deadlock since the assembly election results on Oct. 24. The Bharatiya Janata Party had emerged the single-largest party and looked set to form a government with its then ally Shiv Sena. However, differences between the two over the Chief Minister’s post led to the Sena quitting the alliance.