Mumbai: Nearly a day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Maharashtra, along with eight other party MLAs, confusion remains over the number of legislators who are supporting him.
Ajit took oath as the state deputy chief minister Sunday afternoon — a post he will be sharing with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis.
While he had claimed Sunday that “all [NCP] MLAs were with him, but as the day progressed a handful of NCP MLAs pledged their support to his uncle and NCP patriarch and national president Sharad Pawar, after the latter announced that he was not on the same page as his nephew.
As many as five MLAs publicly tweeted their support for Sharad Pawar — Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad, Rohit Pawar, Anil Deshmukh, and Prajakt Tanpure.
On Monday, another MLA, Nilesh Lanke tweeted, “all leaders should stay together”, but it remained unclear whether his support was for Sharad Pawar or Ajit.
“NCP is my family and Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule [Sharad’s daughter], and Ajit Pawar are my leaders and heads of family. I am a small part of this family. My stand is that all leaders should stay together in current political scenario. However I hope that the decision will be made in the next two days as expected by all,” Lanke tweeted.
The NCP has 53 MLAs in the state assembly. Addressing the media Sunday, NCP’s Maharashtra president Jayant Patil said MLAs (who have reportedly pledged support to Ajit Pawar) are confused. “Many MLAs did not know what they were signing up for. Some are in touch with Sharad Pawar and I have also spoken to two-three MLAs,” he said.
“I feel that only those who took oath have switched to the other side. Many MLAs are in touch with us,” he added.
Talking about the number of MLAs backing Ajit, Patil said, “I don’t want to get into numbers today [Sunday] because many want to come back. That’s why now we are not talking about the numbers. We think they [the Ajit Pawar-led faction] may have given an affidavit to the governor, claiming they have the majority. The governor should have contacted us to know the truth, but no one contacted us. As a party state president, the governor should have cross-checked with me whether we were on board, but I was not contacted.”
ThePrint also reached Jitendra Awhad for comment on the letter of support to the Shinde government submitted by NCP MLAs to the governor, but he said, “We have yet to see it.”
Calls to the governor’s house for comment remained unanswered.
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Rift in NCP
Meanwhile, of the NCP’s four Lok Sabha MPs, Supriya Sule of Baramati and Shriniwas Patil of Satara have pledged support to Sharad Pawar. The other two are Amol Kolhe and Sunil Tatkare. Tatkare’s daughter, Aditi, was among the NCP leaders who took oath in the Shinde government Sunday.
In Rajya Sabha, apart from Sharad Pawar, NCP has Praful Patel who was present at Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in. Another Rajya Sabha MP Fauzia Khan is with Sharad Pawar, while Vandana Chavan hasn’t yet promised support to either of the Pawars.
The rift between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit resurfaced many times over the last few years.
The NCP patriarch 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.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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