Ajit Pawar ousted, Jayant Patil new NCP chief in assembly

Mumbai: In a drastic action capping the day's political turmoil, the Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday evening sacked rebel legislator Ajit Pawar as NCP Legislature Party chief in Maharashtra and replaced him with its state President Jayant Patil.

A party meeting in which NCP President Sharad Pawar, top leaders and legislators were present, also resolved that all powers of Ajit Pawar to issue a whip and function as the NCP Legislature Party chief have been withdrawn with immediate effect.

In his place, Jayant Patil will be the new NCP Legislature Party leader and take all other decisions pertaining in the matter.

As an additional precaution, the party took the signatures of all the present newly-elected NCP MLAs, along with their names, endorsing the unanimous decisions.

Ajit Pawar was appointed to the coveted post on October 30, a week after the election results were announced on October 24.

At that time, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena were engaged in a bitter tug-of-war over the post of CM, which ultimately led to the collapse of their pre-election alliance, pushing the Sena to explore new political avenues with the Congress-NCP.

The developments within the NCP came barely 12 hours after Ajit Pawar abruptly joined hands with the BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, which resulted in political mayhem in the state.

While Ajit Pawar was sworn-in as Deputy Chief Minister, Fadnavis returned as the Chief Minister.