Maharashtra: NCP's Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel meet Amit Shah, BJP leaders amid tussle over portfolios

Ajit Pawar. File Pic/PTI

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and senior BJP leaders late on Wednesday night amid a tussle over the allocation of portfolios to the latest entrant in the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP coalition in Maharashtra, reported the PTI.

The stand-off over portfolios has persisted since the surprise swearing-in of Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP legislators as ministers in the Maharashtra government on July 2 after a split in the Sharad Pawar-led outfit.

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Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and senior leaders Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Sunil Tatkare walked out with a major chunk of MLAs and MLCs of the NCP, staking claim to the name and election symbol of the party.

Praful Patel insisted that the meeting with Amit Shah and other BJP leaders was a "courtesy call" as he and Ajit Pawar had not met them formally since joining the ruling alliance in Maharashtra, according to the PTI.

NCP has been insisting on the crucial finance and water resources portfolios, which the Shiv Sena is learnt to have opposed strongly.

Praful Patel said there would be some issues in the allocation of portfolios as the same had been distributed by the BJP and Shiv Sena when they formed the government last year.

"Now each of them will have to give up some portfolios to accommodate us," he told reporters on Wednesday night, according to the PTI.

Meanwhile, amid a standoff over allocation of portfolios in Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel arrived here on Wednesday evening for a meeting with Amit Shah and top BJP leaders. Talking to reporters, Patel dismissed suggestions about a rift in the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance in Maharashtra and asserted that the issue about the allocation of portfolios has been sorted out and a cabinet expansion in the state will take place in a day or two.

In a surprise development on July 2, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP split as his nephew Ajit Pawar and almost three dozen MLAs joined the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance. Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP leaders were sworn in as ministers.

(with PTI inputs)