Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday made a surprising remark during the ongoing Winter Session in the legislative assembly about his Deputy Ajit Pawar as he wished for the latter to become a Chief Minister someday.
Replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his joint address, Fadnavis turned to Pawar and said: “You are called ‘permanent deputy CM’… but my wishes are with you… you will be the CM someday.”
The Maharashtra CM also shared details about the working schedule of the Mahayuti leaders, stating that he and his deputies Pawar and Eknath Shinde would work 24/7 in shifts. Fadnavis said that while Pawar would take on responsibilities early in the morning, Shinde would work through the night, news agency PTI reported.
“Ajit Pawar will work in the morning since he is an early riser. I am on duty from 12 noon to midnight while throughout the night… you all know who,” Fadnavis said, referring to Shinde, who is known to work till late hours.
Ajit Pawar, who took oath as the deputy CM of Maharashtra for the sixth time on December 5, joined the BJP-led Mahayuti after a split from the Sharad Pawar-founded Nationalist Congress Party. Following the split, Pawar fought for the party name and its ‘clock’ symbol, and his faction got both.
Veteran politician Sharad Pawar, who is also Ajit Pawar’s uncle, now heads NCP (SP), an ally of the Congress and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) under the Maha Vikas Aghadi.
After a major setback in the Lok Sabha elections this year, Ajit Pawar’s NCP made an impressive comeback in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held recently on November 20, bagging 41 of the 57 constituencies it contested.
The Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP together won over 230 of the 288 assembly seats in the state, while MVA managed to win merely 46, despite their impressive performance in the state in Lok Sabha polls.
