Thane: NCP office inauguration to mark celebrations of Ajit Pawar’s birthday on July 22

The office of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will be inaugurated in Thane on July 22 as part of birthday celebrations of the newly-appointed Maharashtra deputy chief minister.

Former Thane Municipal Corporation corporator Najeeb Mulla said a rally will also be organised on that day. The NCP suffered a vertical split on July 2 after Pawar along with eight MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government.

Pawar was made deputy CM while his eight colleagues, including Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil and Hasan Mushrif, were sworn in as ministers. Thane, incidentally, is the stronghold of CM Eknath Shinde. 

In a surprise move on July 2nd  NCP leader Ajit Pawar who was also the Maharashtra Leader of Opposition joined the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra and took oath as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister. The move by NCP chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar, which also saw eight other NCP MLAs joining the Shinde-Fadnavis government, came amid efforts by opposition parties to forge unity to take on the BJP in the next year's Lok Sabha polls