Mumbai: NCP appoints Jitendra Awhad as LoP in Maharashtra Assembly

Jitendra Awhad. Pic/Shadab Khan

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday appointed Jitendra Awhad as Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly after incumbent LoP Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde government as deputy chief minister on Sunday, according to the PTI.

The MLA from Mumbra-Kalwa in neighbouring Thane district in Maharashtra said NCP state unit president Jayant Patil had appointed him chief.

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"All the MLAs will have to abide my whip," he asserted in an apparent reference to defection and disqualification angles that are bound to come up in connection with Sunday's developments brought about by a vertical split in the NCP, the PTI reported.

Queried on Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation probes against some NCP leaders and its role in them switching sides, Awhad said, "I don't see any other reason behind these leaders deciding to join the state government. There was no need to do such a thing. Those leaders could have sat aside," as per the PTI.

"These leaders should not forget the party made them ministers in the past 25 years. Now, they are deserting their leader (83-year-old Sharad Pawar) in his twilight years," Awhad said.

Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar, who took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, on Sunday said his party decided to become part of the Eknath Shinde government for the development of the country, and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

Maintaining that there was no split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he said they would contest all the future elections on the NCP's name and symbol. All the elected representatives (of the party) have supported the decision to join the government, Ajit Pawar said.

Defending his decision to share power with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said, "If we can go with the Shiv Sena, then we can go with the BJP as well. The same thing happened in Nagaland as well."

"Overall and comprehensive development was taken into account. We have a vast experience of the administration, we can utilise it for the good," he said.

The cabinet portfolios will be announced in a couple of days and we will immediately start working on it, Pawar said.

Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister on Sunday, while eight MLAs of the party took oath as ministers in the Shinde-led government earlier in the day.

(with PTI inputs)