Presence of Praful Patel at Ajit Pawar's oath taking ceremony raises eyebrows

After Sena vs Sena, now it is the turn of NCP as Sharad Pawar and his nephew's face-off is on the cards with the latter raising a banner of revolt against the party. However, many eyebrows have been raised with the presence of Praful Patel, the working president of NCP, at the oath-taking ceremony of Ajit Pawar. But, it's a million-dollar question whether NCP veteran has the knowledge of development or not.

Hyderabad: After the face-off between Uddhav Sena and Eknath Shinde Sena, and now it is the turn of NCP. It seems the battle lines have been drawn between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar. The new political drama started soon after the Shinde-Fadnavis government completed a year in Maharashtra and a showdown has begun in NCP after Ajit Pawar joining hands with the BJP government.

Interestingly, Praful Patel, who was appointed as the working president of the NCP, was present at the oath-taking ceremony of Ajit Pawar at the Raj Bhavan on Sunday. Many eyebrows have been raised over the presence of Praful Patel at the ceremony. Speculations were rife whether Ajit Pawar's move had support from the NCP leadership, but NCP leaders and Uddhav Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that Sharad Pawar is not with Ajit Pawar.

NCP, too, stated that it is not aware of the sudden development that ended with Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde government and soon after Ajit Pawar taking oath as the Deputy Chief Minister and a few MLAs also taking oath at the Raj Bhavan. It may be recalled that before he joined hands with the Shinde government, Ajit Pawar convened a meeting, which was attended by Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule and Praful Patel.

Notably, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress party, the two major partners of the Maha Vikas Aghadi are riddled with intra-party squabbles. After the battle between Uddhav Sena and Eknath Shinde Sena, now it seems it is the turn of NCP vs NCP that is Ajit Pawar's NCP vs Sharad Pawar.