Ajit Pawar outsmarted Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray

NCP leader Nawab Malik on Friday claimed that his party chief Sharad Pawar has defeated "modern day Chanakya" Amit Shah, but the BJP National chief got the last laugh on Saturday with the government formation in Maharashtra.

Both Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar were short-changed by Pawar's nephew. Ajit Pawar took the advantage of being elected party leader of the Legislative wing in Maharashtra and formed government with the Bharatiya Janata Party and became the deputy to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Late night development catapulted the junior Pawar as he went past his uncle and mentor in the same way that the senior Pawar has always been seen to do "make hay while the sun shines" being the master of opportunities.

Even while the Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP were trying to figure out power sharing agreement, sources told IANS that Ajit Pawar was in talks with BJP through party MP Sunil Tatkare who is close to Pawar junior as Ajit Pawar had the support of around half the MLAs.

Sharad Pawar was aware of the move of Ajit Pawar so to prevent party from splitting, he started parallel negotiation with the Sena to form government and kept both Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare part of negotiations in Delhi and Mumbai.

Sunil Tatkare was the key person between BJP and NCP leader.

Before the elections in the state in October, Ajit Pawar resigned as MLA. After much persuasion by Sharad Pawar he joined back, but the turf war between Supriya Sule, Pawar's daughter and Lok Sabha MP was evident.

Her cousin, Ajit Pawar was seen to be getting pushed into the sidelines as Supriya Sule tried her hands in party affairs.

During the UPA regime it was decided in the family that Supriya Sule will do politics at central level and Ajit Pawar will manage affairs of the state.IANS