New Delhi: Hours after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, backed by several MLAs, joined the Maharashtra government as the deputy chief minister, former chief minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said he hopes they run the governent well in future. "Ajit Pawar joined Eknath Shinde faction today. Hope the alliance runs the Maharashtra government well in future," Thackeray said.
Pawar will share the post with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.
Apart from Ajit Pawar, eight other NCP MLAs have also been sworn in as ministers in the state cabinet. The names of the newly inducted ministers are Hassan Mushrif, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Baburao Bansode, Anil Bhaidas Patil and Dharmarao Atram.
Reacting to NCP's split, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said that he spoke to Sharad Pawar over the phone and said that “people will not tolerate this game for long”.
"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," he tweeted in Hindi.
Uddhav Thackeray faction leader and spokesperson Anand Dubey said, "The leaders who were in the opposition and used to criticise the government until yesterday, have joined the same government today. Today BJP wanted Ajit Pawar, so they took him, but we should not forget that BJP has a history to stab in the back."
Ajit Pawar's joining the Shinde BJP government is in a way making the BJP's side stronger. In such a situation, BJP is reaching the majority figure even without the support of the Shinde faction. At present, the government has the support of 166 MLAs, including 125 MLAs from the BJP and 40 from the Shinde camp. If 30 MLAs of the Ajit Pawar camp join hands with the BJP, it will have the support of 156 MLAs, which will be 11 more than the majority.