Sharad Pawar says Ajit Pawar’s support for BJP was a personal decision, not NCP’s

NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Saturday that his nephew Ajit Pawar’s decision to back the BJP in forming a government in Maharashtra was his own and not the party’s, hours after the early-morning swearing-in at Raj Bhawan in Mumbai.

Pawar distances the party

In a tweet, Sharad Pawar said: “We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his.” He said he came to know only that morning that Ajit Pawar had become Deputy Chief Minister, and that he would speak in detail at a press conference later in the day.

The BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as Chief Minister for a second term early on Saturday, with Ajit Pawar as his deputy. It was unclear whether the NCP as a whole had chosen to ally with the BJP or whether a group led by Ajit Pawar had split away. No other NCP leader attended the ceremony; only Ajit Pawar and members of his family were present. On Friday evening, after a joint meeting of the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP, Sharad Pawar had put forward Uddhav Thackeray’s name for the chief minister’s post.

The numbers and the background

Under the anti-defection law, a split is formally recognised only if at least two-thirds of a legislature party breaks away. In the NCP’s case, that would require at least 36 MLAs to form a separate group. The previous week, Sharad Pawar had met Prime Minister Modi in Parliament, saying the meeting concerned the distress of farmers in Maharashtra and had nothing to do with forming a government.

There is a precedent in neighbouring Karnataka. In 2007, a group in the JD(S) rebelled against H. D. Deve Gowda to form a government with the BJP. His son H. D. Kumaraswamy led the rebels and became Chief Minister for the first time, a step the former Prime Minister publicly disapproved of. That government lasted one year, and father and son later reconciled.

What happened next

After the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance broke, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena became Chief Minister in November 2019 with the support of the NCP and the Congress.

See also: NCP

Originally published on 25 November 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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