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By India Today News Desk: Maharashtra Industries Minister Uday Samant on Monday said the ruling BJP-Sena alliance will be open to welcome Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar. The statement comes amid speculation that the NCP leader may break ranks to join hands with the BJP in the state.
According to some reports, Ajit Pawar’s cancellation of some programmes and the fact that he was unreachable on the phone gave rise to speculation last Friday about his next move.
However, Ajit Pawar, who is the leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, dubbed such speculation as “baseless” and denied meeting Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah in Mumbai on Saturday.
Two days later, Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant added fuel to the speculation.
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“We will welcome Ajit Pawar if he’s willing to join us. He has good experience, he is a big leader and we have worked with him. The final decision will be taken by CM Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis. We will be very happy if he joins us,” Samant was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
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The NCP, Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress are constituents of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state.
Notably, amid a deadlock over government formation in Maharashtra after the Assembly elections in 2019, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and NCP’s Ajit Pawar were sworn in as the chief minister and deputy CM in a hush-hush early morning ceremony on November 23. Their government lasted only 80 hours.
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