Congress to ask Ajit Pawar's expulsion from NCP if govt formation decision taken without Sharad Pawar's consent: Sources

The Congress party will ask for Ajit Pawar's expulsion from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) if he has joined hands with the BJP without his party chief Sharad Pawar's consent, top Congress sources said.

"The Congress party will ask Ajit Pawar's expulsion from the NCP if he has joined hands with the BJP without Sharad Pawar's consent," they said.

Sources added that the party will also raise a question on how the governor administered the oath to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister and Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister of Maharashtra without the letter of support.

Taking to Twitter, NCP chief and Ajit's uncle, Sharad Pawar wrote, "Ajit Pawar's decision to support the BJP to form the Maharashtra Government is his personal decision and not that of the NCP. We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his."

In a surprising development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Ajit took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The oath was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhawan.The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.

Earlier, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had claimed that there was a consensus on Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister of the alliance government.The BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party in last month's assembly elections, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by Koshyari.The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.

-ANI

Also Read: ‘Sanjay Raut has ruined Shiv Sena,’ says BJP after Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as Maharashtra CM