In another setback to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, all the seven NCP MLAs in Nagaland have sent a letter of support to Ajit Pawar and his faction.

NCP Nagaland president Vanthungo Odyuo has confirmed that all the seven NCP MLAs in the north-eastern state sent a letter in favor of Deputy Chief Minister Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar on Thursday morning.

Vanthungo Odyuo said that he has all the papers required for their support and he has submitted those to the 'high command' Thursday morning

The political landscape of Maharashtra underwent a significant shift the last month when Pawar and eight other Nationalist Congress Party MLAs joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government. This move effectively split the NCP, which was founded by Sharad Pawar.

His political manoeuvre split the party founded by his uncle Sharad Pawar and changed the political equations of Maharashtra ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

While Ajit Pawar has drawn support from NCP leaders like Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, and Dilip Walse Patil and claimed his faction to be the 'real NCP', Sharad Pawar has also asserted himself to be the party boss by expelling several leaders for 'anti-party activities'. 

Ajit Pawar's move is akin to the way Eknath Shinde split the undivided Shiv Sena last year and joined hands with the BJP, thereby pulling the Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi government out of power and securing the Chief Minister's post for himself. 

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Maharashtra government tabled the supplementary demands worth ₹41,243.21 crore for the year 2023-24 in the state Assembly on the first day of the monsoon session with the highest allocation being sought for the Urban Development Department.

Of the total amount, ₹34,001.53 crore is from the revenue account and ₹7,004.50 crore in the capital account. The supplementary demands, which are additional funds sought by the government over the budgetary allocation, were tabled by Finance Minister Ajit Pawar.

This is the second-highest supplementary demand in the last three years and eight months. After the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government took charge in November 2019, supplementary demands worth ₹2,27,121.23 crore have been submitted. In Budget 2023-24, the Eknath Shinde government submitted a supplementary demand of ₹6,383.97 crore.

Of the total supplementary demand of ₹41,243.21 crore, the government has proposed an allocation of ₹6,224.55 crore for the Urban Development (UD) Department out of which ₹2,100 crore is for stamp duty surcharge of Metro Railway, while ₹3563.16 crore is towards the seventh pay commission arrears for teaching and non-teaching staff.