Team News Riveting
Mumbai, April 20
Senior National Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar recently hogged the headlines again in the Maharashtra politics after strong speculation that he was repeating the infamous November 2019 coup within the party.
On November 24, 2019, Ajit Pawar revolted against NCP chief Sharad Pawar and lent support to BJP to form a government in the state. In a dramatic turn of events, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as Maharashtra Chief Minister with NCP leader Ajit Pawar as his deputy in the wee hours of November 23.
Just after 3 days on November 26, he reversed his move and resigned. Since his relationship with Uncle Sharad Pawar was going well. Rumors about Ajit’s next political move started doing rounds last week when he suddenly cancelled his scheduled meetings and also made comments going soft on the BJP and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp.
According to observers, Pawar did not reach out to BJP directly. An NCP MP had played the role of mediator and chalked out the conditions for joining or partnering with BJP. The MP played a key role in the ‘Ajit Pawar coup 2.0’ plan that however could not get success. What exactly went wrong and who played the spoilsports?
Ajit Pawar had planned that out of 53, around 35 MLAs would join his rebellion group at the proposed April 18 meeting. But only 12 NCP MLAs and an Independent legislator turned up. Pawar expected to demonstrate a show of strength but a thin number of MLAs compelled him to put his plan on hold, the observers said.
Sources said it was former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who smelled the plot first and reportedly punctured Ajit Pawar’s plan. Thackeray on April 11 alerted Sharad Pawar during a meeting of a possible Shiv Sena-like revolt in NCP. The move alerted the Sharad Pawar camp that kept a close watch on the movement of party’s MLAs.
Shiv Sena (UT) MP Sanjay Raut added grist to the rumour mill last week, claiming Sharad Pawar recently told Uddhav Thackeray that his party will never join hands with the BJP even if anyone takes an individual decision to do so. He published a report in ‘Saamana’, party’s mouthpiece. Observers said the ‘Saamana report’ was a well-cooked plan to spoil the Ajit Pawar-BJP’s plot.
