List Of NCP Leaders Who Took Oath As Ministers In BJP-Sena Government

In a surprising turn of events, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde government along with several of his colleagues on Sunday.

The oath-taking ceremony was administered by Ramesh Bais at the Raj Bhavan in the presence of CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Since 2019, this is the third time that Ajit Pawar was administered the oath of deputy chief minister.

In November 2019, after the Assembly polls and the split between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, Devendra Fadnavis and NCP's Ajit Pawar were sworn in as CM and Deputy CM, respectively, in an early morning ceremony in Raj Bhavan. The government lasted just 80 hours as Pawar was unable to cause a split in his party.

Within a month, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray was sworn in as CM after his party joined hands with the NCP and Congress to form the Maha Vikas Agahdi government. Incidentally, Ajit Pawar, who had returned to the NCP, was the deputy CM in this government.

The MVA government fell in June last year after minister Eknath Shinde and 39 MLAs revolted against Thackeray and split the Shiv Sena. Shinde was sworn in as CM on June 30 with the support of the BJP. This time, Fadnavis as made deputy CM.

List Of NCP MLAs Who Took Oath Today

Ajit Pawar

Chhagan Bhujbal

Hasan Mushrif

Dhananjay Munde

Dilip Walse Patil

Dharmarao Baba Atram

Aditi Tatkare

Anil Patil

Sanjay BansodeAs per the reports, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has the backing of 40 NCP MLAs and six NCP MLCs.

However, Sharad Pawar has said that he is unaware of the development.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said that the "double-engine government has now become triple engine" government now. "For the development of Maharashtra, I welcome Ajit Pawar and his leaders. Ajit Pawar's experience will help strengthen Maharashtra," the Chief Minister said.

Responding to cabinet expansion, he said, "There is enough time to discuss about the seat sharing in the cabinet. We have come together to develop Maharashtra. They (the opposition) got 4-5 seats in Lok Sabha elections, this time they will not manage to get even those number of seats."