Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) was scheduled to open a new party office close to the state secretariat on Tuesday amidst the rising political unrest in Maharashtra.
The keys, however, were missing when the Ajit Pawar supporters arrived to the new “Rashtrawadi Bhavan at Ballard Estate,” thus they were forced to wait outside for many hours.
The party leaders were reportedly seen sitting on chairs outside the closed doors while phone calls were being made to quickly locate the keys.
According to media sources, Ambadas Danve, the leader of the opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council and a supporter of Uddhav Thackeray, formerly resided in the mansion that Ajit Pawar picked for the party headquarters.
Important discussions between the Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions are set to take place on Wednesday as the battle for the “real NCP” continues.
Unrest at the NCP camp
In an effort to further entrench their control over the group, opposing sections of the NCP embarked on a hiring binge on Monday, sparking a tremendous internal battle.
The most significant result was that on July 2, Ajit Pawar, who had revolted against his uncle Sharad Pawar, joined the Maharashtra administration under the leadership of Eknath Shinde.
He also fired the NCP’s state unit leader in Maharashtra, Jayant Patil, and replaced him with Sunil Tatkare.
The head of the NCP’s legislative branch was similarly titled as Ajit Pawar.
The choice was made after Praful Patel, one of the eight MLAs who supported Ajit Pawar’s revolt, was fired by Sharad Pawar for “engineering secretive defections”.