Sharad Pawar loses 2 more legislators to rebel nephew

Shingne was with NCP chief Sharad Pawar when he called a meeting of MLAs and leaders on July 5, following the rebellion led by his nephew Ajit which led to a vertical split in the NCP. Patil, till then, was undecided and had chosen to skip the meetings called by Pawar as well as Ajit

MUMBAI: The split in the Nationalist Congress Party has left many of its MLAs confused, with some still undecided about which side they should choose. Amid the hesitation and uncertainty, the Ajit Pawar faction succeeded in getting two more MLAs on its side—Rajendra Shingne and Makarand Patil.

Sharad Pawar loses 2 more legislators to rebel nephew

Shingne was with NCP chief Sharad Pawar when he called a meeting of MLAs and leaders on July 5, following the rebellion led by his nephew Ajit which led to a vertical split in the NCP. Patil, till then, was undecided and had chosen to skip the meetings called by Pawar as well as Ajit.

But as the days go by, equations are changing. On Monday, Shingne, a five-term MLA from Sindkhed Raja assembly constituency, was seen with Ajit Pawar along with another MLA Yashwant Mane and former MLA Rajan Patil at Devgiri bungalow, the official residence of Ajit as deputy chief minister. Patil too announced that he would join the Ajit camp on Saturday.

NCP leaders from the Ajit faction said that Shingne and Patil joining them was only the beginning. Very soon, they declared, other MLAs too would choose their faction over Sharad Pawar’s, and the NCP chief would be left with very few MLAs in the coming days.

With the change in equations, Pawar is left with 12 MLAs as of now. These are Jayant Patil, Anil Deshmukh, Rajesh Tope, Jitendra Awhad, Prajakt Tanpure, Suman Patil, Rohit Pawar, Balasaheb Patil, Sunil Bhusara, Ashok Pawar, Sandip Kshirsagar and Mansing Naik. Six MLAs—Ashutosh Kale, Chandrakant Navghare, Balasaheb Ajabe, Babasaheb Patil, Saroj Ahire and Nawab Malik—have yet to announce their stand to the people, while the rest of the 35 MLAs have shifted their loyalty to Ajit. On Wednesday, 15 MLAs expressed their support to Sharad Pawar by attending his meeting at YB Chavan Centre.

Significantly, Ajit is planning to appoint Patil as a minister in the coalition government. “Patil comes from the Wai assembly constituency in Satara in western Maharashtra and fits into the equation of caste and region which is being considered while making such appointments,” said a senior NCP leader from the Ajit faction.

Other NCP MLAs who could be selected for ministerial positions are Sangram Jagtap (Ahmednagar City assembly constituency) and Indraneel Naik (Pusad assembly constituency), insiders from the NCP rebel faction said.

The rebel faction is trying to convince MLAs by offering three reasons. According to them, their faction is due to get the finance and cooperation portfolios—on account of this, they say, all issues will be resolved and development works cleared, which will create their base for contesting the 2024 assembly elections. The second reason is their supposition that Sharad Pawar may not be active after a few years, and his deputies, Supriya Sule and Jayant Patil, do not have the requisite qualities to get elected. The third reason offered is the most piquant one: if Ajit gets the support of all the NCP MLAs, they say, Pawar Senior will give up his resistance and himself move to their side.