Mumbai: In a late-night move Sunday, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) filed a disqualification petition against party leader Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs who took oath earlier in the day to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Maharashtra. The petition accuses them of violating the party whip and joining the Shinde government without informing NCP national president, Sharad Pawar, said the party.
“One of our MLAs sent a complaint to the party, which was sent to the disciplinary committee of the party. Based on its report, we have filed the petition. I tried to reach the speaker, Rahul Narwekar, over phone and email and also sent the petition to him via WhatsApp and iMessage,” said NCP’s Maharashtra president Jayant Patil, while addressing the reporters late Sunday.
The NCP’s newly appointed chief whip and leader of opposition in the Maharashtra assembly, Jitendra Awhad, also personally delivered the petition to Narwekar at his residence late Sunday, said the party.
“We expect that the speaker will look into this matter and give us a hearing at the earliest hour tomorrow (Monday),” Patil told the media.
The NCP, it is learnt, has started initiating action against party workers and leaders who supported the 9 MLAs who took oath. Letters shared with the media state that those members who were present at the oath-taking ceremony stand removed from the party.
Moreover, Rakhi Jadhav has been appointed as working president of the Mumbai NCP.
In a letter to Sharad Pawar, his daughter and party working president Supriya Sule has named Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare for indulging in “anti-party activities” by “facilitating and spearheading” the sweearing in. Calling their actions a “betrayal of the mandate given by the electorate and the party”, she has sought “immediate steps against them including filing of disqualification proceedings under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution”.
Meanwhile, state party chief Patil has sent letters of expulsion to three leaders — state general secretary Shivajirao Garje, Akola district chief Vijay Deshmukh and Mumbai district working president Narendra Rane.
The NCP state discipline committee has passed a resolution which states that the 9 MLAs have indulged in anti-party activities and it is a clear and absolute violation of the NCP’s constitution. “It is recorded that the fact these defections were done in a secretive manner without the knowledge and consent of party president which invites disqualification,” the disqualification petition states.
Speaking to the media, Jayant Patil said he had informed the Election Commission about the development and asserted that almost all of the party’s workers and MLAs were loyal to Sharad Pawar.
He slammed Ajit Pawar and his supporters for defying the party’s decision and said “nine MLAs cannot be a party”.
“Those nine MLAs did not inform the state and national president about anything and action will be taken against them by the party too. They might have submitted an affidavit with signatures of other MLAs to the governor, but he [the governor] did not bother to cross-check with us,” he added.
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Pawar vs Pawar
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP faced a major setback Sunday with Sharad’s nephew Ajit Pawar taking oath as deputy chief minister in the Shinde government. He will be sharing the post the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
While Ajit Pawar maintains that he has the support of most of the NCP MLAs and that he acted in the best interest of the state, Sharad Pawar has said that this situation of multiple leaders breaking away and raising questions about the future of the party is not new for him.
“The people of Maharashtra will decide who the NCP belongs to,” he told the media Sunday.
The rift between Sharad Pawar and nephew Ajit resurfaced many times over the last few years.
Following the 2019 assembly elections, while the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the NCP, and the Congress tried to cobble together an alliance to stake claim to form the government, Ajit Pawar had, in a similar fashion, extended support to the Fadnavis-led BJP. At a hurried oath-taking ceremony, he was sworn in as the deputy chief minister.
However, his tenure lasted only a few days as Fadnavis failed to prove his numbers. Ajit meanwhile, returned to the NCP, was ‘forgiven’ and even went on to become the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the assembly — the post he said last week he didn’t want anymore.
Sharad Pawar had last month appointed his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, along with Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel, as the party’s working presidents.
The move led to speculation that Pawar, a former Union minister and chief minister of Maharashtra, had settled the debate over who out of daughter Supriya and nephew Ajit would take over the reins of the party after him.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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