Shalini Patil, wife of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vasantdada Patil, said the wheel of time has turned and Ajit Pawar 's move is a 'lesson' to what Sharad Pawar did 41 years ago.On Saturday, Sharad Pawar 's nephew and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar along with some party MLAs went to Raj Bhavan and took oath as Deputy Chief Minister in a dramatic manner while BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis took oath for Chief Minister and after this move Sharad Pawar had to keep his MLAs in a hotel to save his party.
Shalini said, "The way Sharad Pawar treated Vasantrao. He got the same treatment from his family when Ajit Pawar tied up with the BJP". She described Pawar's move to capture power in 1978 as "betrayal and stabbing in the back ". Shalini said that Pawar should have spoken directly to Vasantdada instead of secretly breaking the MLAs.
In 2006, Shalini was expelled from the NCP for taking an anti-party stance on the issue of social justice. Notably in February 1978, Congress (S) won 69 seats and Congress (I) 65 seats. The Janata Party had 99 seats in its account and no party had a majority.At that time, both factions of Congress united to form the government and Vasantdada Patil of Congress (S) became Chief Minister and Nashikrao Tirupade of Congress (I) became Deputy Chief Minister. Amidst the day-to-day squabbles in the new government, Pawar parted ways with 38 MLAs to form the new government and formed the 'Samantar Congress' and became the youngest Chief Minister of Maharashtra at the age of 38. However, this government lasted less than two years.