'Some people have taken up...': Sanjay Raut's first reaction after Ajit Pawar ditches MVA, joins NDA

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut took aim at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar for jumping ship and taking oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Raut said that the people of Maharashtra will not tolerate this game and that some people have taken the task of cleaning up Maharashtra politics upon themselves.  

He also said that he had a word with NCP’s Sharad Pawar and quoted Pawar as saying that he is strong and that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance has the support of the people. He also said that Pawar believes the MVA can rebuild everything with Uddhav Thackeray.  

“Some people have taken up the task of cleaning up Maharashtra politics. Let them have their way. I just had a talk with Sharad Pawar. He said "I am strong. We have the support of the people. We will rebuild everything again with Uddhav Thackeray." Yes, people will not tolerate this game for long,” said Sanjay Raut in a tweet in Marathi. 

In another tweet, Raut said the BJP government was about to put Chhagan Bhujbal and other NCP leaders, present at the Raj Bhawan, in jail. "BJP was about to send them to jail. They are taking the oath of office of minister."

Raut’s comments came after Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, sharing the post with Devendra Fadnavis. Ajit Pawar and nine other NCP leaders took oath on Sunday. Moreover, Pawar has claimed that he has the support of 40 NCP MLAs.  

Nine other NCP leaders who took oath with Ajit Pawar include former Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, former Maharashtra home minister Dilip Walse Patil, Dhananjay Munde, Anil Patil, Dharmrao Atram, Sunil Valsade, Hasan Mushrif, and Aditi Tatkare.  

The development came as a shock for the MVA alliance as the three parties—Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress—have been working out a seat-sharing formula ahead of the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections. The MVA had 122 MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly as of Sunday morning.  

The shocker came almost three weeks after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar made Supriya Sule and Praful Patel the working presidents of the NCP. Ajit Pawar was upset as he was denied the post of the party’s state unit chief. He also offered to resign from the post of the Leader of the Opposition, seeking organisational responsibility.  

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