Deputy CM Ajjit pawar resigns from Maharashtra government

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar quit the cabinet on Tuesday following allegations of improprieties in the irrigation department when he was the water resources development minister for ten years between 1999-2009.
Soon after his decision to quit, a section of NCP legislators clamoured for exiting from the government, breaking the alliance with the state Congress and extending its support from outside.

All 19 other NCP ministers in the 43-member council of ministers offered their resignations to state NCP chief Madhukarrao Pichhad.

However, NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who is Ajit Pawar’s uncle, and Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel declared in New Delhi that the party would not quit the state government.

Caught completely unaware, the Congress top brass, including Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and state party chief Manikrao Thakre, chose to keep mum on the fast-paced political developments that gripped the state.