Mumbai, Jul 2 (IANS): Minutes after taking oath as Deputy Chief Minister for a record 5th time, Ajit Pawar changed his social media credentials, here on Sunday afternoon.

His new status on Twitter reads as ‘Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra’, MLA from Baramati, former Leader of Opposition of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

After splitting the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and taking away around three dozen MLAs, he maintains the status as – ‘NCP Leader’.

Previously, Pawar, 64, served twice as the Dy CM under former Congress Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan (tenures - November 2010-September 2012, Octobre 2012-September 2014), the third time (November 23-26, 2019) with Bharatiya Janata Party’s CM Devendra Fadnavis when he took the oath in a dawn ceremony but their government crashed in 80 hours.

Later, he bounced back as the Deputy CM for the fourth time (December 2019-June 2022), under the Maha Vikas Aghadi ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray, and the fifth time on Sunday under the Shiv Sena CM Eknath Shinde.