Today was 'black spot' in history of Maharashtra: Ahmed Patel on Ajit Pawar backing BJP

Calling NCP leader Ajit Pawar's support to BJP to form the government in Maharashtra a "black spot" in the history of the state, Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Saturday said that nothing can be more "shameful" than this.

"Today was a black spot in the history of Maharashtra. Everything was done in a hushed manner and early morning. Something is wrong somewhere. Nothing can be more shameful than this," Patel said in a press conference here.

Dismissing the allegation that Congress delayed government formation in Maharashtra with support of NCP and Shiv Sena, he said: "There was no delay from Congress party's end. As soon as we got Uddhav Thackeray's call, we met them. And we met Sharad Pawar as soon as he gave us time. The allegation that we delayed government formation in Maharashtra is completely baseless."

The Congress leader said that all the Congress MLAs are intact except two who have gone to their village.

"There is no chance our MLAs will break, we are ready to defeat BJP on the floor test. We will work out a strategy soon. We will fight BJP forming government in Maharashtra on both fronts- political as well as the legal front," he said.

Speaking about the next political move to be taken by the Congress, Patel said: "Sharad Pawar ji announced yesterday only about the consensus on Uddhav Thackeray's name for the Chief Minister's post. We stuck to the same."

In a surprising development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The oath was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhawan.

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.

The BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party in last month's assembly elections, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.

Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by Koshyari.

The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.