A day after Ajit Pawar sworn is Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government and claimed the support of 40 MLAs, two of them have returned to uncle Sharad Pawar. As per the Times of India report, Sata MLA Makrand Patil and North KOrad MLA Balasaheb Patil have left Ajit Pawar's camp and returned to Sharad Pawar's camp.
Sharad Pawar-led the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) disqualified nine rebel MLAs including Ajit Pawar who were sworn in as ministers in the Shinde-Fadnavis government on Sunday. On the other hand, in the debate over the Leader of the Opposition, Sharad Pawar has said if Congress wants to appoint their leader of the Opposition then it would be a valid demand as the party with the maximum number of MLAs gets to appoint the LoP.
Notably, the total strength of the Maharashtra legislative assembly is 288 and a minimum of 145 is needed to win the trust vote. After Eknath Shinde and his supporters' rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray in 2022, the new alliance between Shinde and Fadnavis increased to 164. And, with Ajit Pawar's move, the NDA government's seats are likely to cross the 200-mark. The MahaVikas Aghadi alliance among Congress, the NCP, and the Shiv Sena (UBT) is down to 74 seats. The MVA support is reduced to 16 Siv Sena (UBT), 13 NCP-Sharad Pawar, and 45 Congress MLAs.