Jitendra Ahwad is the MLA from the Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Thane city.

Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Ahwad resigned from his post on Wednesday, a day after party chief Sharad Pawar said he was stepping down from his position.

Mr Ahwad, a former minister and the MLA from the Mumbra-Kalwa constituency in Thane city, is considered to be a close aide of Mr Pawar and one of the most influential leaders of the NCP in Maharashtra.

He had also played a key role in forging the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance with the Congress and the Shiv Sena to form the government in 2019.

Mr Pawar, who had founded the NCP in 1999 after breaking away from the Congress over Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue, had announced his decision to resign as the party president on Tuesday, saying he wanted to make way for a new leadership.

Hours later, amid a dramatic show of distress from partymen, he agreed to “rethink” and said he needed “two-three days” but the move redoubled speculation about his nephew Ajit Pawar drifting towards the BJP.

As soon as Sharad Pawar, 82, dropped the bombshell on Tuesday afternoon at the launch of his autobiography, NCP leaders crowded the stage. Some leaders wept and many said they would stay put unless the veteran changed his mind.

The only leader who appeared to accept the decision and talk about the future was Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar’s political heir, whose recent moves have triggered speculation that he may split the party and join hands with the BJP.

That is believed to be the BJP’s Plan B if its Maharashtra ally, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, loses the Sena versus Sena case in the Supreme Court and is disqualified along with 15 other MLAs.

Sources believe Sharad Pawar could appoint a working president and continue as chief of the party he founded in 1999, after quitting the Congress.

With his resignation shocker, Sharad Pawar has once again shown that he has complete control over the party, a message that had to go at a time there are rumours about his nephew trying to organise a rebellion and defections.