Ajit’s rebellion sparks a bitter Pawar vs Pawar fight for NCP

On Monday, NCP chief Sharad Pawar expelled its recently-appointed working president Praful Patel and general secretary Sunil Tatkare, Ajit Pawar's co-defectors.

Mumbai: At his first public meeting at Karad, a day after his nephew Ajit Pawar split the NCP, Sharad Pawar said some people in the party had been misled by the BJP but he bore them no malice. However, in practise, the disciplinary action has been swift in coming. On Monday, he expelled NCP’s recently-appointed working president Praful Patel and general secretary Sunil Tatkare both of whom have defected with Ajit Pawar.

Ajit’s rebellion sparks a bitter Pawar vs Pawar fight for NCP

In sharp retaliation, indicative of the escalating bitterness, Praful Patel, a long-time associate, said Sharad Pawar had lost the right to sack him as he was the party’s working president. It has been the claim of the defectors that they represent the real Nationalist Congress Party as they have the bulk of MLAs. However, they have so far been unable to prove that claim. Patel also appointed Jalgaon MLA Anil Patil as the new whip of the party and said Ajit Pawar had been elected as the party’s new legislative chief.'

NCP state president Jayant Patil sent a letter to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Sunday night seeking the disqualification of Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs who took oath as ministers in the Shiv Sena-BJP government. Yesterday, the Ajit Pawar camp hit back by appointing Tatkare as the Maharashtra NCP president in place of Jayant Patil. It also asked Narvekar to disqualify Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad from the House.

On Monday, Supriya Sule who is the party’s working president for Maharashtra, had recommended that Patel and Tatkare be expelled from the party. In an organisational rejig on June 10, the NCP had appointed two working presidents. Praful Patel was given charge of MP, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Goa while Supriya Sule was given charge of Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab and also made chairman of the party’s central election authority. That difference in the states under their remit is likely to play a crucial role legally since the defection happened in Maharashtra which is under Sule’s charge.

According to the party’s constitution, the working committee of the NCP is the highest body in the party. Article 20(ix) states, “The President shall preside over the National Convention of the party held after his or her election and during his or her term of office, he or she shall exercise all the powers of the working committee when it is not in session.” While Patel insists that he has a right to appoint state unit president, party leaders pointed out that he was not in charge of Maharashtra.

Sharad Pawar’s letter to Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare said: “In the light of your undisputed conduct, by the power bestowed upon me as the national president of the Nationalist Congress Party vide rules framed under Article 21 (vi)(a) of the party constitution, I hereby formally remove your names from the membership registrar of the party in view of your action of voluntarily giving up membership of the NCP.” Patel is the party’s Rajya Sabha MP while Tatkare is Lok Sabha MP from Raigad.

State general secretary Shivajirao Garje, Mumbai working president Narendra Rane and a few other office bearers who were seen at Ajit’s swearing-in ceremony too were expelled from the party.

Ajit Pawar now insists, just like Eknath Shinde had done, that in case of a dispute, it is for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide which faction is the real party. At the same time, he stressed that the national president of the party remains his uncle who had brought him into in politics.

“We will have to follow the rules, regulations and the constitution (of the party). The powers to decide party affairs have been given to those who have the majority, as we saw only a year ago (in Sena’s case).”

Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar who is already considering the matter of the disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde said he had received Jayant Patil’s notice on the disqualification of the rebel NCP MLAs and that he woud need some time to deliberate before taking any decision.

At present, neither side can claim to have the majority of MLAs with them to escape provisions of anti-defection. Till late Monday evening, Ajit Pawar had the support of 24 of the 53 MLAs while Sharad Pawar had the support of 13 MLAs with him. The remaining 15 MLAs have either gone incommunicado or says they will decide after consulting their constituents.

This is one of the reasons why the party has refrained from acting against other MLAs as they believe some of them will return to Sharad Pawar’s fold. The picture is likely to become clearer however on July 5 when both factions have called their MLAs for a meeting in Mumbai.