NCP appoints Jitendra Awhad chief whip, LoP

NCP appointed Jitendra Awhad as leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly after Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde government on Sunday. He said NCP state unit president Jayant Patil appointed him chief whip of the party and LoP in the assembly.

"All MLAs will have to abide by my whip," he asserted in an apparent reference to defection and disqualification angles that are bound to come up in connection with Sunday's developments brought about by a vertical split in the NCP.