Mumbai: In a dramatic turn of overnight events, arch rivals Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar joined hands to form government in Maharashtra on early Saturday morning. The development came less than 12 hours after NCP chief Sharad Pawar announced unanimity over the choice of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to be backed by NCP and Congress.

On Saturday morning, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis returned to the top post and took oath at Raj Bhawan in Mumbai followed by senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar taking oath as the deputy chief minister. The oath was administered by Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the Raj Bhawan.

The reasons behind the development were immediately not known. In the assembly polls, the BJP won 105 seats and NCP had won 54 seats in the recently concluded polls. Shiv Sena had got 56, while the Congress had won 44 seats.

Ajit Pawar is the nephew of Sharad Pawar and has earlier served as the former deputy chief minister. It is the first time that NCP and BJP have joined hands to form government. Interestingly, alleged corruption charges against Ajit Pawar was one of the mainstay of BJP's state campaign in 2014 assembly elections.

“People had given us a clear mandate, but Shiv Sena tried to ally with other parties after results, as a result President's rule was imposed. Maharashtra needed a stable govt not a 'khichdi' government," Fadnavis told ANI after the oath taking ceremony on Saturday morning.

“From result day to this day no party was able to form government, Maharashtra was facing many problems including farmer issues, so we decided to form a stable government," a tweet by ANI said quoting Ajit Pawar after taking oath.

NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena were in talks for over a week now to form government in the state. Sharad Pawar on late Saturday evening had told reporters that the leadership question was worked and there was complete unanimity over Thackeray's name.

Soon after the oath taking, both Prime Minisiter Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah sent their congratulations over Twitter. Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra," Modi posted on Saturday morning.

Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 23, 2019





Shah also congratulated both the leaders over taking oath and said he was confident they would work towards development and progress of the state.

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