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This story is from November 27, 2019

Morning call, family and peer pressure, pushback turned tide

A morning meeting between uncle and nephew on Tuesday put the Sena-NCP-Congress combine back on course to form the government in Maharashtra. And the emotional appeal from within the family and friends further made him question his decision of alalying with the BJP. Hours later, Ajit Pawar submitted his resignation as deputy CM.
Morning call, family and peer pressure, pushback turned tide
Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar (PTI photo)
Key Highlights
  • A morning meeting between uncle and nephew on Tuesday put the Sena-NCP-Congress combine back on course to form govt in Maharashtra
  • Hours later, the nephew, Ajit Pawar, submitted his resignation to Devendra Fadnavis, who stepped down as CM
  • By evening, Maha Vikas Aghadi officially named Uddhav Thackeray for the top job
PUNE/MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: A morning meeting between uncle and nephew at a Mumbai hotel on Tuesday put the Sena-NCP-Congress combine back on course to form the government in Maharashtra.
Hours later, the nephew, Ajit Pawar, submitted his resignation to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who stepped down as chief minister in the afternoon. By evening, the Maha Vikas Aghadi officially named Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for the top job.

"He (Ajit) met 'saheb' (Sharad Pawar) in the morning following which the developments took place. I don't exactly know what triggered him (sic). I was myself unaware and everything was decided between him and saheb," Ajit Pawar's son Parth told TOI.
Ajit's sudden rebellion had shaken the close-knit Pawar family, but they were told that Sharad Pawar would deal with the matter directly, said a family friend. Only Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule and grandnephew Rohit made emotional appeals on social media.
Sources indicated that Pawar's wife Pratibha was keen on a reconciliation with Ajit.
In September, when Ajit quit as MLA in the wake of the ED case against him, Pawar had dismissed talk of the resignation being the result of a family dispute. "There is no political or family dispute. Our family has a tradition of sitting down and deciding everything. I am the family head, my word is final," he had said.
Over the past couple of days, Pawar sent delegation after delegation of senior NCP leaders to meet Ajit and mount pressure on him against making any move that would hurt the party. They tried to convince him that his decision to ally with BJP was not in his own interests. "We had a prolonged meeting with Ajit. We told him to reconsider and return to the party fold. He assured us that he would apply his mind. Three hours later, he resigned,'' senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal told TOI.

Sunil Tatkare and Hasan Mushriff were the first NCP leaders to meet Ajit after he was sworn in as deputy chief minister on November 23. This was followed by another meeting with Tatkare and state NCP chief Jayant Patil on Monday. However, with Ajit taking a firm stand, the NCP leaders had given up hope that he would return to the party.
On Tuesday, Praful Patel convinced Ajit to meet senior NCP leaders once again at his residence. At the meeting NCP leaders told Ajit that his decision to join hands with Fadnavis had embarrassed Sharad Pawar and the entire Pawar family. Soon after this meeting, Ajit met senior Pawar at the hotel.
Having virtually run the party after his uncle settled into the "elder" role, Ajit has a good grip on the organisation and is popular among party MLAs. The issues he had raised before his rebellion - that Sena should concede rotational CM considering that it had just two more MLAs than NCP; that Congress was seeking an inordinate share; and that NCP along with BJP could provide a stable regime than a three-party Aghadi - found resonance among the ranks.
However, things did not go his way due to a combination of factors. First, he did not expect his uncle to put up the kind of resistance he showed. Senior Pawar was opposed to signing a deal with BJP immediately after a poll in which he and Fadnavis had targeted each other.
Second, many NCP MLAs had won against heavy odds and did not wish to take risks such as disqualification. Third, the reverence for Pawar trumped their loyalty to Ajit. And, fourth, the emotional appeal from within the family and pleas for reconsideration by sympathetic colleagues not to split the party deterred him. It also shows that BJP did not act on a lark when it decided to team up with Ajit. The party had banked on his fabled goodwill among the ranks, but he failed to deliver.
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