'Would've brought entire NCP if...,' says Ajit Pawar if he received offer to become Maharashtra CM

The political drama in Maharashtra just got meatier. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said that he would have gotten the entire Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) along with him had the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena offered him the post of Chief Minister. 

While speaking at the release of CM Eknath Shinde's biography Yodha Karmayogi- Eknath Sambhaji Shinde, "I jokingly told some people that when you (BJP) told Eknath Shinde that he should come with so many MLAs and he would be made the Chief Minister... then you should have asked me. I would have brought the whole party along."

Listening to this, Fadnavis and Shinde also started laughing. Pawar later said that the Mahayuti allies should keep up at their work and whatever happens in life is written in fate. He also said that the seats held by the BJP, NCP-Ajit and Shiv Sena will be retained but they are prepared in case some seats have to be swapped for winning the assembly elections. 

Ajit Pawar rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar in July last year and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government by splitting the NCP. Pawar said in a jocular vein that he is senior to both Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis in politics.

"All went ahead and I trailed behind," Pawar said, adding that Fadnavis became an MLA for the first time in 1995 and Shinde in 2004 while he became a member of the state assembly for the first time in 1999.

Furthermore, Pawar said that he has seen many CMs but no one like Shinde, who is surrounded by people all the time. Pawar also said in jest that Shinde got all the limelight with his huge fan following, leaving hardly any scope for efforts taken by Pawar to be highlighted. 

"I also get up early and start working but I have never had such a fan following," he said.  Fadnavis served as the chief minister twice from 2014 to 2019 and for 72 hours in 2019 when Ajit Pawar joined hands with him in a short-lived alliance. Ajit Pawar has not hidden his ambitions to become the Maharashtra CM in the past. 

In 2022, Shinde led a rebellion with 39 MLAs against the then Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, causing the collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Subsequently, Shinde became the chief minister.