Ajit Pawar asked who will be NCP's new national president. He says…

Pawar was responding to a question on the appointment of a new national president of the party.

A day after leading the vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Maharashtra's newly-inducted deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-government Ajit Pawar on Monday insisted that Sharad Pawar is still the party's national president. Pawar was responding to a question on the appointment of a new national president of the party. “Have you forgotten that Sharad Pawar is the party's national president?,” he asked.

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Maharashtra deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar. (PTI)

In an unexpected development, Ajit Pawar on Sunday took oath as Maharashtra's deputy CM. Along with him, eight other NCP MLAs including Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Anil Patil, and Sanjay Bansode were also sworn in as ministers.

Sharad vs Ajit trade sackings

The infighting in NCP escalated on Monday as Sharad Pawar sacked Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare from the party for anti-party activities. Patel was the national working president of the party, while Tatkare was NCP's national general secretary.

“Your actions of supporting Ajit Pawar and 8 other MLAs, who have sworn oath as ministers in violation of the party's direction and mandate, ex-facie amount to anti-party activities and that you deemed to have voluntarily left the membership of NCP,” Pawar's official statement read.

The other announcements included Anil Patil as chief whip of party,Rupali Chakankar as state women chief and Suraj Chavan as youth NCP chief.