Mumbai, Jul 2 (IANS): Moving swiftly, the Nationalist Congress Party state President Jayant Patil has named senior leader and National General Secretary Dr. Jitendra Awhad as the Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) new Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and also the new Chief Whip.

The appointment came hours after Ajit Pawar quit the post and defected to the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the second Deputy CM with present Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

A party leader said that a letter is being submitted to the Speaker with the name of Dr. Awhad as the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

He will replace Ajit Pawar, who triggered a political earthquake in the morning, quit this afternoon taking along around three dozen NCP MLAs with him and later staking claim to the party name (NCP) and symbol (Clock).

Soon afterwards, Patil tweeted that he is still with ‘Pawar Saheb’, and Dr. Awhad also posted a photo of him with Sharad Pawar in a car and a legend, “forever with respected Pawar Saheb”.

The surprise development came soon after NCP President Sharad Pawar announced that the new Leader of Opposition would be decided after consulting MVA allies Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) soon.