Hours Before Top Court’s Judgment, Ajit Pawar Meets Fadnavis, Discusses Farmers' Issues

After remaining ensconced in his south Mumbai residence throughout Sunday, NCP leader and newly anointed deputy CM Ajit Pawar met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis late night and held closed-door discussions.

Earlier in the day, the supreme court issued notices to the Centre, Maharashtra government, Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar on a plea filed by the Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP combine seeking quashing of the governor's November 23 order inviting the BJP leader to form government.

Senior BJP leaders Chandrakant Patil, Vinod Tawade and Girish Mahajan attended the meeting held at the official residence of the chief minister, the party sources said.

The apex court directed the Centre to place before it on Monday morning the letters of the governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari inviting Fadnavis and of the BJP leader staking his claim to form the government in the state.

A late night tweet from the CMO Maharashtra, however, said the CM and the Deputy CM discussed various measures for rain-hit farmers.

"CM @Dev_Fadnavis and DCM @AjitPawarSpeaks today met and discussed on various measures for additional support & assistance to unseasonal rain affected farmers. Tomorrow it will be further discussed with the Chief Secretary & Finance Secretary".

In a dramatic turn of events in Maharashtra, President's Rule was lifted on Saturday morning, following which Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar were sworn in as chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively, by the governor.

The development came hours after the new alliance of Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress arrived at a consensus that Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will be their chief ministerial candidate.