Former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was on Wednesday elected the legislature party leader of the Nationalist Congress Party at an event in Mumbai, PTI reported. Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party chief Jayant Patil said the party’s newly-elected legislators voted Pawar the leader unanimously.

Pawar thanked the MLAs and said he would be aggressive against the government on matters like unemployment and the agrarian crisis. Nationalist Congress Party chief, Ajit Pawar’s uncle, Sharad Pawar was present at the meeting.

Dhananjay Munde, the leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, was also present at the event. Munde had won a surprise victory against BJP leader Pankaja Munde from the Parli Assembly seat.

The Nationalist Congress Party won 54 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, results for which were declared on October 24. Its ally the Congress won 44 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 105 seats, and its ally the Shiv Sena 56 seats.

The BJP and Shiv Sena had entered negotiations to form a government, but these broke down on Tuesday after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected the Shiv Sena’s demand that it hold the chief minister’s post for half of the Assembly’s five-year term. On Friday, Sharad Pawar had said that there was nothing wrong with the Shiv Sena’s demand.

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