“You Will Be Chief Minister Someday”: Devendra Fadnavis Tells Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said he and his deputies Ajit Pawar and Eknath Shinde would work 24/7 in shifts.

“Ajit Pawar will work in the morning since he is an early riser. I am on duty from noon to midnight while throughout the night… you all know who,” Mr Fadnavis said, referring to Mr Shinde, who is known to work till late hours.

He was replying to a debate in the legislative assembly on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his joint address to both Houses of the state legislature during the ongoing Winter Session in Nagpur.

Turning to Ajit Pawar, Mr Fadnavis said in the legislative, “You are called ‘permanent deputy CM’… but my wishes are with you… you will be the Chief Minister someday.” Ajit Pawar on December 5 took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the sixth time.

The NCP leader, who has been vocal about his chief ministerial ambitions, split the Sharad Pawar-founded Nationalist Congress Party in 2023 and joined the BJP-led Mahayuti government.

In the ensuing battle for the party name and its ‘clock’ symbol, his faction got both. His uncle and veteran politician Sharad Pawar now heads NCP (SP), an ally of the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) under the banner of the Maha Vikas Aghadi.

After a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls that saw NCP bagging only one seat, Ajit Pawar’s party made an impressive comeback in the recently held assembly elections, emerging victorious in 41 of the 57 constituencies where it was in the fray.

The Mahayuti alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP won over 230 of the state’s 288 assembly seats, while MVA could manage to grab only 46.