Ajit Pawar holds meet with NCP MLAs at his brother's residence

Hours after joining hands with the BJP, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday held a meet with NCP MP and two MLAs at the residence of his brother -Sriniwas Pawar here in Mumbai.

NCP MP Sunil Tatkare and MLAs Dilip Walse Patil and Hasan Mushrif attended the meeting.

Security has been heightened outside the residence of Sriniwas Pawar where the meeting was held.

Meanwhile, NCP MLA Diliprao Bankar tweeted to confirm his support to NCP.

"My faith is in Sharad Pawar, I am with NCP only. I went to Raj Bhavan when Ajit Pawar asked me to go with him," he wrote on Twitter.

In a surprising development, BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state. The oath was administered by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhawan.The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena on government formation seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.The BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party in last month's assembly elections, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by Koshyari.The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.

( With inputs from ANI )