Congress calls it 'betrayal of people's mandate,' as NCP-BJP ally in Maharashtra

The Congress hit out at Devendra Fadnavis being sworn-in as the Maharashtra chief minister on Saturday, saying it was a "betrayal of people's mandate." The month-long political impasse in Maharashtra ended dramatically on Saturday with the BJP's Fadnavis returning as the chief minister, backed by the NCP.

"This is called a betrayal of people's mandate and giving the contract for killing democracy," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet.

He also tagged media reports on allegations of Ajit Pawar's involvement in scams.

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Earlier, senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi expressed surprise at the political developments in Maharashtra and said the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations took too long as the window was grabbed by "fast movers".

"Surreal what I read about Maharashtra. I thought it was fake news. Candidly and personally speaking, our tripartite negotiations should not have gone on for more than 3 days...took too long. The window given was grabbed by fast movers. Pawarji tussi great ho," he said in a tweet.

Maharashtra govt

NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar earlier tweeted that the decision to support the Fadnavis-led government was not supported by the NCP. He added that this was a personal decision of Ajit Pawar himself. He placed on record that we do not support or endorse this decision of his. But BJP MLA  Girish Mahajan has claimed that Ajit Pawar has submitted the letter of all 54 NCP MLAs' support to the Governor. 

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Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday took oath as Chief Minister, and Ajit Pawar as the Deputy Chief Minister in Maharashtra in Raj Bhavan on Saturday. Terming the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP as a 'Khichdi government', Fadnavis stated that the BJP-NCP will be able to give a  stable government. 

"I wish to thank PM Modi and Amit Shah ji for giving me the opportunity for serving the state. When Shiv Sena started making efforts to make an alliance outside, it ended up in President's rule. It is not good a state like Maharashtra be under President's rule for so long. Hence I wish to thank NCP's Ajit Pawar for taking the decision to provide a stable government and not a Khichdi government in the state," he said. 

Earlier on Friday, after the joint meeting of Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP, Sharad Pawar in a massive statement revealed that there was unanimity on Uddhav Thackeray being the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He added that the discussions between the parties would continue tomorrow. Furthermore, he exuded confidence that the tie-up would be formally announced on Saturday. As of Friday, with Uddhav Thackeray at the helm, Congress and NCP were going to form the next government with a Deputy CM each.

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(with PTI inputs)