The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction, led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, filed a disqualification petition with Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar against MLAs of the Sharad Pawar camp due to anti-party activities. NCP leader Anil Patil, who is part of Ajit Pawar's faction, has filed a petition. Ajit Pawar faction has claimed that they are the real NCP.
This development comes against the backdrop of the Election Commission of India (ECI) calling both factions of the NCP for a personal hearing on October 6. However, both factions of the NCP had said there was no split in the party.
Earlier, on behalf of Sharad Pawar's faction, a petition was filed with Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to take action against 41 MLAs. However, the Speaker has not yet served any notice to these MLAs.
Ajit Pawar joins NDA
NCP split into two factions after Ajit Pawar on July 2, this year revolted against his uncle and party chief Sharad Pawar and joined the Eknath Shinde government. Junior Pawar claimed he owned the party and took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Nine NCP MLAs also took oath as ministers in the Eknath government. NCP MLAs who joined Ajit Pawar were Chagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse-Patil, Hasan Mushriff, Dhananjay Munde, Dharmaraj Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode and Anil Patil. Since there is rivalry between the two factions to capture offices and other party logistics and now the fight moved to the social media platform.
As per the reports, the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar has the support of 41 MLAs while 11 lawmakers are with Sharad Pawar, according to reports. Ever since the split in the party, it was not clear which faction of the party has how many MLAs. But since the matter has now reached the Election Commission and Assembly Speaker, it has come out that Ajit Pawar's faction has the support of 41 MLAs and 11 are with the party's patriarch Sharad Pawar.
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