Ajit Pawar, the nephew of Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, has sparked a big revolt in the Opposition's citadel in Maharashtra as he joined the ruling BJP-led alliance on Sunday. In what has become a mega political twist in the state's political instability, Ajit Pawar's revolt has given a big blow to the state's opposition coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and indeed to the entire opposition bloc in the country that is charting a plan to contest unitedly against the BJP regime in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

MVA consists of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, Congress, and the NCP. For the BJP, Ajit Pawar has become the next major bait to collapse the opposition after Eknath Shinde, who broke the ties with Shiv Sena years ago and joined the BJP alliance, and went on to become the Chief Minister. Shinde brought a pile of MLAs with him and divided the Shiv Sena party into two factions - one led by him and the other by Uddhav Thackeray. 

Shinde's revolt had ousted Thackeray from the post of Chief Minister and while the former took over as the Chief Minister, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis became the Deputy Chief Minister. The BJP's habitual politics of dominating the opposition from the back door was strongly visible in Maharashtra and years after collapsing Shiv Sena, the saffron party has now put the future of MVA and the opposition's unity in peril.

NCP and its chief Sharad Pawar had been veteran players in the united opposition and Pawar took part in the recently-held opposition leaders meeting in Patna in which the leaders announced that they would contest unitedly to expel the BJP regime from power. However, when the opposition leaders are getting ready to meet up for the second time later this month, Maharashtra politics had witnessed stunning events on Sunday. 

After successfully inducting Shinde in its faction, the BJP has now invited senior leader of NCP, Ajit Pawar and has given a new strength to its government in the state. Ajit Pawar is one of the most powerful leaders in NCP and a familiar political figure across the country, due to which his exit has made headlines and has made BJP to award a grand welcome to him. The events unfolded on Sunday were unanticipated and had caused tremors in the state, particularly to the inner circle of Sharad Pawar. 

Ajit Pawar took a dozen of MLAs with him to the BJP alliance and when the reason behind his exit was being examined and debated, he was conferred with a top post in the government. Ajit Pawar took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra hours of splitting his party and allying with the BJP. Pawar will be sharing the baton with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis. Interestingly, Pawar has become the Deputy Chief Minister for the third time in four years under different administrations. 

In 2019, Ajit Pawar had a brief stint as the Deputy Chief Minister under the BJP government, that lasted for less than 80 hours. After the fall of the BJP government, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA formed a new government in November 2019 and again, Ajit Pawar was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister as NCP was a part of MVA. However, his second stint as the Deputy Chief Minister didn't last long as Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde, who was believed to be a loyal aide of Thackeray, led a rebellion and joined the BJP. 

Shinde's revolt had toppled the Thackeray administration in Maharashtra and eventually, BJP formed the government with the support of Shinde-led faction. Ajit Pawar was ousted from his Deputy Chief Minister Post in June 2022. After a year, Ajit Pawar has now taken oath as the Deputy Chief Minister on Sunday under the BJP administration, which has become his third stint as Deputy Chief Minister in four years. Along with Ajit Pawar, eight MLAs from NCP had also sworn in as the ministers in the BJP-led regime.