 "Ajit Pawar reaches EC, says he's NCP chief, stakes claim to party symbol")
On Wednesday, with at least 32 of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) legislators turning up to support him, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister (CM) Ajit Pawar said he aspired to be the state’s CM someday. Of the NCP's 53 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs), 18 were paraded at the meeting that party chief Sharad Pawar called.
Ajit sought his 83-year-old uncle Sharad Pawar’s blessings and urged him to retire from active politics. The 63-year-old asserted that he, not his uncle, was the national party chief of the NCP.
At a separate meeting, Pawar advised his nephew to be wary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and questioned why they had used his photograph on their banners.
The fight, however, has now reached the Election Commission (EC), and the fate of the MLAs supporting the Ajit faction hinges on whether the EC recognises it as a break-away group since 32 MLAs currently supporting it is four short of the two-thirds necessary under the anti-defection law.
The Ajit faction staked claim to the party symbol, informing the EC that the party elected him its national president “through a resolution dated June 30, 2023”, two days before he rebelled and took the oath as deputy CM.
The letter was followed by 40 affidavits of NCP’s MLAs, Members of Parliament (MPs), and Members of Legislative Council, dated June 30, supporting Ajit, which the EC received on July 5. The EC has also received a resolution “unanimously” electing Ajit as president of NCP.
The Pawar-led group also filed a caveat through email on July 3, which stated it had taken action against some of the rebels. According to EC sources, Maharashtra NCP President Jayant R Patil emailed it urging the poll panel to hear them (Sharad Pawar group) before passing any directive. In another letter, Patil said disqualification proceedings had been filed against nine MLAs of the NCP, including Ajit Pawar.
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Ajit, 63, and Pawar held separate meetings of their followers, their first after the July 2 split in Mumbai. Addressing his loyalists at South Mumbai’s Yashwantrao Chavan Centre, Pawar senior warned his nephew of the BJP's penchant for swallowing its smaller allies. He wondered why the other camp needed to use his photograph on their stage.
Addressing those among the NCP's MLAs and workers who have opted to follow his lead, Ajit urged his uncle to retire from politics.
“In the BJP, leaders retire at 75. When are you going to stop?" Ajit asked at the meeting held at Bhujbal Knowledge Centre in Bandra.
Ajit blamed his uncle for the NCP losing out on the chance to have its own CM in Maharashtra in 2004.
“We had more MLAs than the Congress in 2004, but our senior leader allowed the Congress to bag the CM’s post,” he said.
Addressing his faction's meeting, the senior Pawar said his nephew went with the BJP despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling the NCP a “corrupt” party. The NCP patriarch assured his supporters he wouldn't allow anyone to snatch the party symbol.
“Today, we may not be in power, but we are in people’s hearts,” he said, resolving to build the party he founded in 1999.
While the BJP has been quick to point out that the split in the NCP weakened Opposition unity efforts, NCP Working President Praful Patel on Wednesday said he felt like laughing at the June 23 Patna meeting that he attended. He said half of those who attended the Patna meeting had only one MP in the Lok Sabha.
“There was one party that had zero MPs. They claim they will bring change,” said Patel.
The Rajya Sabha MP said NCP MLAs had requested Sharad Pawar to go with the BJP when the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was on the verge of collapse last year.
“When we could accept the ideology of Shiv Sena, then what is the objection in going with BJP?” he stated.
In a related reaction to the developments, Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar, currently with the Shinde camp, said the induction of the NCP group led by Ajit Pawar in the Maharashtra Cabinet had dented the prospects of ministerial aspirants from the BJP and Shiv Sena.
“This has upset some MLAs. The CM is aware of this,” said Kirtikar.