New Delhi: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday expelled top party leaders and MPs Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare — a day after they switched sides to the ruling Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde)-BJP combine.
Pawar tweeted Monday evening that he had ordered the removal of their names from the Register of Members for “anti-party activities”.
On Sunday, Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar engineered a dramatic coup in the party by taking along eight other MLAs to the ruling camp of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Party MPs Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare stood by him.
Junior Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister – a post he will share with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis – while the others were sworn in as ministers. Tatakare’s daughter Aditi was among them.
More drama followed Monday, as rebels started to establish their own writ as the “real NCP” – just as the Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde faction had done a year ago after splitting from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party.
Praful Patel, who was appointed the working president of the “unified” NCP by Sharad Pawar a month ago, appointed fellow rebel Sunil Tatkare as party’s state unit president. He “sacked” present state chief Jayanti Patil, who is loyal to Sharad Pawar.
Patel said Anil Patil – who also switched sides – would continue as the party’s chief whip in the Maharashtra Assembly.
He also appointed Ajit Pawar as as leader of the NCP legislature party.
At a press conference in the evening, Praful Patel said Tatkare would bring in more structural changes in the party hierarchy, indicating that there would be a “rebel” face to every Sharad Pawar appointee.
At the same conference, Ajit Pawar told reporters that his uncle would remain the NCP’s national president, with Patel hoping that he would “continue to bless us”.
Meanwhile, the rebels have requested Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to disqualify Jayanti Patil and Jitendra Awhad, whom senior Pawar appointed as Leader of Opposition hours after the coup. Ajit Pawar had held that position, but said two weeks ago that he would rather take a party post.
Pawar’s statement was seen as an expression of his resentment that his uncle made daughter Supriya Sule the party’s working president. Praful Patel too was made a working president, and therefore, his defection has stunned the Sharad Pawar camp.
As Sharad Pawar tries to hold his flock together, his nephew reiterated his claim Monday that a majority of the 53 NCP MLAs were with him. He needs more than 36 to escape provisions of the anti-defection law.
Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar camp’s latest move has been to request Speaker Narwekar to disqualify the nine party rebels.
In a show of strength Monday morning, Sharad Pawar was followed by thousands as he paid his respects to his mentor and Maharashtra’s first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan on “Guru Purnima”.
Addressing the crowd, Pawar said that some of “his people” had fallen prey to the BJP’s tactics to break other parties.
Accusing the BJP of trying to destroy all Opposition parties, Pawar said he would launch a statewide tour to strengthen the NCP and “boost party workers”.
He said he had experience of MLAs leaving the party before – nephew Ajit Pawar had joined the BJP in 2019 but came back within days after failing to muster support – but this time the “results would be good”.
The NCP founder also told supporters that many Ajit Pawar loyalists had called him to say they would make a decision soon.
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