Was sure of Ajit's return, family stands united: Rohit Pawar

The NCP's Ajit Pawar, whose support of the BJP sparked a controversial and chaotic 80 hours in Maharashtra politics that ended with the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar resigning, as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, within hours of each other, was welcomed back to the party by his nephew and MLA Rohit Pawar. The Pawar clan will "stand united" he said today after Ajit Pawar made his "ghar wapsi (homecoming)" and was greeted with a warm hug from his cousin, Supriya Sule.

"I could not trust how it (Ajit Pawar's return) happened. As a worker I did not go into details. There was some confusion... I could not understand what was happening," Rohit Pawar, the grandson of party chief Sharad Pawar's older brother, said.

He also expressed happiness at Tuesday night's meeting between Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar, who has reinforced his reputation as the strongman of Maratha politics by orchestrating the return of his MLAs and, importantly, that of Ajit Pawar too.