NCP MLAs' letters of support have been misused: Nawab Malik

Adding more twists and turns to the Maharashtra potboiler, Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik on Saturday said that his party had taken signatures from MLAs for attendance which were later misused, a dig at Ajit Pawar, who was sworn in on Saturday as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.

"We had taken signatures from MLAs for attendance, it was misused as a basis for the oath," Malik said.

Earlier in the day, Devendra Fadnavis took oath as the chief minister of Maharashtra for the second term.

BJP, with 105 seats forged alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party which bagged 54 seats to garner the majority figure.

Meanwhile, NCP chief Sharad Pawar clarified that the decision of going with BJP to form the government in Maharashtra is of his nephew Ajit Pawar, who took as deputy chief minister on Saturday.

"Ajit Pawar's decision to support the BJP to form the Maharashtra government is his personal decision and not that of the Nationalist Congress Party. We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his," Sharad Pawar tweeted.

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena 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.

Shiv Sena bagged 56 seats while 44 seats went to Congress in the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.