MUMBAI: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he would work hard for people of the state.
NCP sources said this was an indication that the nephew of party chief Sharad Pawar had spurned all efforts to persuade him to rescind his shocking move to back the BJP.
Ajit Pawar also changed his Twitter bio to 'Deputy Chief Minister, Maharashtra' and 'Nationalist Congress Party Leader'.
He further said that he was still with the NCP and Sharad Pawar was the leader. “I am in the NCP and shall always be in the NCP and Sharad Pawar saheb is our leader,” Ajit Pawar tweeted.
Modi on Saturday congratulated Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar for taking oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra respectively, and expressed confidence that the two will work for the state's development.
Responding to Modi's congratulatory message after his sudden swearing-in as Dy CM on Saturday, Ajit Pawar in a tweet thanked the prime minister.
"Thank you Hon. Prime Minister @narendramodi ji. We will ensure a stable Government that will work hard for the welfare of the people of Maharashtra," he tweeted.
He also thanked Union Home Minister Amit Shah, other central ministers Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, Rajnath Singh, Piyush Goyal, BJP working president J P Nadda and other BJP leaders for their good wishes on his taking charge as the deputy chief minister.
Earlier, NCP leaders Jayant Patil and Dilip Walse Patil called on Ajit Pawar in the morning to persuade him to reconsider his decision.
Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at a hush-hush ceremony here on Saturday morning, leading to the lifting of the President's rule in the state.
On Saturday evening, the NCP removed Ajit Pawar as the party's legislature unit head, saying his move was not in line with the party's policies.
The BJP and the Sena, which fought the last month's Assembly polls in an alliance, secured a comfortable majority by winning 105 and 56 seats respectively.
The Sena, however, broke its three-decade-long ties with the BJP after the latter declined to share the chief minister's post.
The Congress and the NCP, both pre-poll allies, won 44 and 54 seats respectively.