What nephew has done now, uncle had done in 1978

The developments of Sunday which saw Ajit Pawar splitting the Nationalist Congress Party and joining the Eknath Shinde government is just the latest of political earthquakes Maharashtra has seen, including Sharad Pawar's power play in 1978.

The NCP supremo, who was at the receiving end of his nephew's move during the day, had, 45 years ago, split the Congress and walked out with 40 MLAs, leading to the collapse of the Vasantdada Patil government.

He was sworn in as CM of the Progressive Democratic Front, which comprised several opposition parties, on July 18, 1978.

Veteran journalist Prakash Joshi said, in 1978, the legislature session was on and then home minister Nasikrao Tirpude had warned CM Vasantdada Patil about a threat to his government from industries minister Pawar.

"Vasantdada replied (to Tirpude) that Sharad just met me. Later in the day Vasantdada resigned as CM," Joshi recalled.

Something similar played out in June last year when minister Eknath Shinde got 39 MLAs to rebel against CM Uddhav Thackeray, leading to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party formed a government on June 30 last year.

In 2019, Ajit Pawar was sworn in as deputy CM along with CM Devendra Fadnavis in an early morning ceremony in Raj Bhavan post the Assembly polls and split between the BJP and Shiv Sena.

However, the government lasted for less than 80 hours and Ajit Pawar returned to the NCP.

Incidentally, while Sharad Pawar took away senior Congress leaders Govindrao Adik, Sushilkumar Shinde in 1978, his nephew Ajit Pawar on Sunday did a repeat by taking away staunch loyalists of the NCP supremo like Dilip Walse Patil, and Chhagan Bhujbal.