Contending that there was “no split” within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), rebel NCP leader Praful Patel on July 7 said that Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar had been “unanimously elected” as NCP president on June 30 in the presence of a majority of the party MLAs and rejected the decision of a party working committee meeting chaired by NCP chief Sharad Pawar to expel leaders of the rebel faction.
Mr. Patel, speaking to reporters at the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, flanked by Mr. Ajit Pawar and other rebel leaders by his side, said that more than 40 MLAs had supported Mr. Ajit Pawar’s nomination as NCP president following which their faction had staked claim to the party name and symbol from the Election Commission (EC).
“The party had held a meeting on June 30 in the presence of many MLAs and MLCs at ‘Devgiri’ [Mr. Ajit Pawar’s Mumbai residence]. In that meeting, Ajit Pawar was unanimously elected as NCP president. I was appointed as national working president by him [Mr. Ajit Pawar]. As a party, we then appointed Anil Bhaidas Patil as the NCP whip in the Legislative Assembly and Amol Mitkari as a whip in the Legislative Council. The same day we had given a petition to EC in Delhi, along with affidavits of more than 40 MLAs informing the EC about Ajit Pawar’s appointment and staking claim to the party name and symbol,” Mr. Patel said.
He further said that the working committee meeting chaired by Mr. Sharad Pawar in Delhi on Thursday went against the internal party constitution and that its decisions did not apply to the rebel faction.
Mr. Patil questioned the right of NCP State chief and Mr. Sharad Pawar loyalist Jayant Patil to serve a disqualification notice to Mr. Ajit Pawar and other rebel NCP leaders including himself when the appointment of the State chief (Mr. Patil) itself had been on an ad hoc basis without due elections as per the NCP’s constitution.
“We are not splitting the NCP. We are only saying that the majority of MLAs are behind Ajit Pawar and that we should be recognised as the party…There were no internal elections within the NCP for many years. The Maharashtra president [Mr. Jayant Patil] himself was appointed on an ad hoc basis. As per our [NCP’s] constitution, Jayant Patil is not our State president. So, on what basis can he file a disqualification petition against us? Only the EC can decide with whom the party stands and which faction has the numbers. Hence, on June 30 itself, we had submitted a petition to EC and finished all legal formalities,” said Mr. Patel.
On Thursday, Mr. Sharad Pawar had chaired a meeting of the NCP working committee after which he said that the committee had “full faith and confidence” in him and had approved of his decision to expel “Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare and nine NCP MLAs [including Mr. Ajit Pawar] who have joined hands with the BJP”.
Questioning the validity of the working committee itself, Mr. Patel said it could not take the decision on the appointment of office-bearers because of a “flawed organisational structure.”
Mr. Patel asserted that the working committee had no power since most of the office-bearers have been appointed, and not elected.
“Despite having an internal party constitution in place, elections were not held within the party for many years. Membership recruitment processes were not completed. Members were appointed and not elected. Thus, going by our own NCP constitution, they do not have any powers,” Mr. Patel said.
