Two rebellions that reshaped the contours of Maha politics

A year after the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray saw a split after the rebellion of Eknath Shinde with his 40 supporters, Ajit Pawar has led the second rebellion by swearing-in with eight of his party colleagues. His aides claim they have almost the same number of NCP MLAs with them.

- Surendra Gangan and Shailesh Gaikwad

In a span of a year, the BJP has managed to engineer two splits in two regional parties in Maharashtra that were strong. While Uddhav has even lost the party, it is not yet clear what will happen in case of the NCP-just like Eknath Shinde, Ajit Pawar has claimed that his is the original party.

"The roots of the two splits were sown in 2019. NCP chief Sharad Pawar took initiative and formed the opposition coalition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi to keep the BJP out of power. Uddhav Thackeray joined in his efforts. The leadership of the BJP had then decided to punish both of them and make both the leaders powerless. It has happened now in a span of one year," said a top state BJP leader, seeking anonymity.

Ajit's rebellion is similar to Shinde's: Form a group of majority of MLAs, declare support to the government with the BJP, claim to be the original party. While Shinde succeeded in taking control of the party, what happens in the next few days will decide whether Ajit manages to get the NCP, formed by his uncle in 1999.