NEW DELHI, July 20: All seven MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Nagaland have expressed support to Ajit Pawar in a huge setback for the faction headed by his uncle, the veteran founder-president of the party Sharad Pawar.
The seven NCP MLAs of the northeast state in a statement on Thursday said all party workers in the Nagaland NCP office would also support Ajit Pawar. The decision, however, was not very surprising considering that the NCP in Nagaland had already been supporting the BJP government in the state and Sharad Pawar had justified the decision saying that the stability of the government in Nagaland as it being a border state was more important than other political equations.
Earlier this month, Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs joined the Maharashtra Shiv Sena and BJP alliance government, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. That move split the NCP, the party founded by Sharad Pawar.
Ajit Pawar’s tactical manoeuvre has parallels to how Shinde broke away from the Shiv Sena when Uddhav Thackeray was the Chief Minister. Shinde eventually granted control of the Shiv Sena by the Election Commission of India.
In 2019, the Shiv Sena had ended the alliance with the BJP and formed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra with the Congress and NCP. The government collapsed last year after Shinde split the party and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government.
(Manas Dasgupta)
