Ajit acted against party, says NCP chief Sharad Pawar; Cong still confident to form Maharashtra government

Addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Pawar said Ajit breached the party discipline.

When asked whether action will be taken against his nephew, Pawar said, "We will take the decision after meeting the party leaders at 4:30 pm."

The NCP chief in the press conference also paraded a few of the MLAs who went along with Ajit to support the BJP. One of the MLAs who came back from Ajit's camp said, "We were unaware about the development. We later discovered it was the swearing-in ceremony."

Earlier Pawar had tweeted, "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 (NCP). We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his." 

Thackeray said the BJP wants to stay in power by breaking parties. "We are doing everything during daytime while the BJP is doing at night," the Sena chief said. 

Congress on the other hand is still hopeful that the BJP will be kept out of power though Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari granted time to the BJP till the end of November to prove majority.

Taking his colleague Mallikarjun Kharge in confidence, veteran Congress leader Ahmed Patel slammed the BJP saying, "Democracy has been ridiculed."

However, Patel is not ready to accept that it was the delay in taking call to form the government with Sena led to this coup.

"We were not slow at all. Legitimate time was taken for the process," he said. 

Maharashtra wakes up under BJP rule

NCP leader Ajit Pawar stunned the Shiv Sena on early Saturday morning by allying with the BJP to form the next state government in Maharashtra.

After Koshyari revoked the Presidential rule in the state early morning, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the Chief Minister for the second time with Ajit as his deputy after the NCP leader claimed 35 of his party MLAs have supported the saffron outfit.

Though the tally of BJP-NCP is still five short of the majority mark (145), the saffron party is likely to cobble up the number with the support of the Independent MLAs.

All the developments on the western soil took place barely a few hours after Sharad Pawar last night informed his party, Shiv Sena and Congress will form the Maharashtra government with Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister.