Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said he would have brought the entire Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with him had the BJP and Shiv Sena offered him the chief minister`s post. Speaking at the launch of "Yoddha Karmayogi - Eknath Sambhaji Shinde", a biography of the current chief minister, Pawar noted in a lighter vein that in politics he was senior to both CM Shinde and fellow deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Shinde and Fadnavis were also present at the book launch. Pawar rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar in July 2023 and joined the BJP-Sena government by splitting the NCP. "All went ahead and I trailed behind," Ajit Pawar said, noting that Fadnavis first became an MLA in 1999 and Shinde in 2004, while he first became a member of the state assembly way back in 1990.