The surprise turn of events in Maharashtra can be seen as history repeating itself, almost after 13 years when a similar ‘split’ in JD(S) installed H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka Chief Minister with the support of the BJP.

Switch to November 2019, a split in the NCP has seen Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar walking away from the party and supporting BJP to form the government in Maharashtra by ensuring the post of the Deputy Chief Minister for himself.

In 2004, JD(S) had joined hands with the Congress to keep away the single largest party, BJP, from the Chief Minister’s post. JD(S), which had emerged as the third-largest party, supported Congress to install Dharam Singh as Chief Minister.

Two years later, JD(S) witnessed a split with MLAs supporting Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister with the support of the BJP, much to the chagrin of JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda.

On Saturday, a day after Sharad Pawar appeared to stitch together an unlikely alliance of Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress, his nephew Ajit Pawar walked out with a sizeable chunk of NCP MLAs to support the BJP.

“Ajit Pawar’s decision to support the BJP to form the Maharashtra government is his personal decision and not that of the NCP. We place on record that we do not support or endorse this decision,” Sharad Pawar said on Twitter.

A number of NCP leaders claimed that they got to know of Ajit Pawar’s actions only after he was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.