Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 4: Wednesday will be a big day for the faction-ridden Nationalist Congress Party when both the groups will be meeting separately to reflect who have the support of the majority of the elected members.
Both factions of the party have called meetings on Wednesday to tally numbers and keep their flock together. While newly-appointed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has called all MLAs, district presidents, and regional chiefs at 11 am in Mumbai’s Bandra, NCP patriarch and founder-leader Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s uncle, has called all party leaders for a meeting at 1 pm at Yashwantrao Chavan Centre Auditorium in Mumbai’s Nariman Point.
Reports claim Ajit Pawar has, in a letter to the Governor, claimed the support of 42 out of the party’s 53 MLAs along with their signatures. The claim had many MLAs alleging that they unwittingly gave their signatures without knowing the purpose. Sharad Pawar camp hasn’t yet mentioned any figure so far, though leaders have claimed the defectors are only a few and the party stands firmly behind the NCP chief.
Neither Ajit Pawar nor Sharad Pawar has produced MLAs in their support, and a handful declaring their allegiance to Pawar Senior on Twitter are the only NCP leaders to make it official. Two MLAs who attended Ajit Pawar’s oath ceremony but returned to Sharad Pawar later are Makrand Patil and Balasaheb Patil. An MP, Amol Kolhe, has also said he will return to Sharad Pawar’s faction.
Those who have put up posts declaring their support for Sharad Pawar, sharing their photos with him, are Anil Deshmukh, Jitendra Awadh, Jayant Patil, Rohit Pawar, Sandeep Kshirsagar, and Prajakt Prasadrao Tanpure. “Always with respectable Sahab (Sharad Pawar),” wrote Jitendra Awadh.
Ajit Pawar has, till now, been seen with only nine NCP MLAs, though he claims he has the party’s backing and Sharad Pawar remains its leader. With Sharad Pawar’s long-time aide Praful Patel by his side, Ajit Pawar said he would reveal his numbers when required. As for the Ajit Pawar faction, the MLAs who were sworn in on Sunday with him are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil, Anil Patil, Hasan Mushriff, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmraobaba Atram, and Sanjay Bansode.
For now, Ajit Pawar doesn’t seem to have the two-third majority needed to split the party and avoid action under the anti-defection law. If he does have these numbers, he can claim the party name and symbol.
Sharad Pawar, 82, has launched what he calls his mission to rebuild the party from the ground up. Team Sharad Pawar is consulting legal experts on the disqualification of the defectors.
The decision on whether Ajit Pawar and his faction should be disqualified will be taken by Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who hasn’t decided on a similar question for his Shiv Sena, which split a year ago after a coup that ended with rebel Eknath Shinde forming a government with the BJP.
Sources close to Sharad Pawar said he would not make the same mistake as Uddhav Thackeray, who shut the doors on all defecting MLAs by dubbing them “traitors” when they left with Shinde. Sharad Pawar knows that the nine MLAs who joined the Maharashtra cabinet won’t return, but he wants to make sure the others know they can return anytime. “Action has been taken against only these nine. For the others, Supriya Sule said they are like family, giving them the option to return” the sources said.
The situation will become clearer when Sharad Pawar start touring the state from July 8 starting from Nashik with special emphasis giving to the constituencies represented by the rebel NCP members to shore up support for the party. Pawar senior will visit Pune, Solapur, Nashik, Beed, and some parts of the Vidarbha region — constituencies of Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde and other rebel MLAs.
Sharad Pawar, 82, has launched what he calls his mission to rebuild the party from the ground up. He is also seeking legal opinion to tackle the crisis in the party caused by his nephew Ajit Pawar joining the Shiv Sena-BJP government and claiming the support of the bulk of MLAs.
The NCP had moved a petition before Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar seeking the disqualification of Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs who have taken oath as ministers in the Eknath Shinde-led government. Narwekar said he would take a fair decision after going through everything soon. Narwekar clarified that he did not have any letter from any faction where they are saying they are a separate faction. Both Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar have claimed the entire party is with them. The party has also written to the Election Commission stressing that Sharad Pawar, NCP’s founder, continues to head the party.
Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar has debarred the Ajit Pawar faction from using his photograph in any manner. He said those who “betrayed” his ideology should not use his photograph. “Only the party of which I am the national president and Jayant Patil the state president can use my photograph,” he said and added that in his lifetime it was his prerogative to decide who should use his photograph, he said. “Those who betrayed my ideology and with whom I have ideological differences cannot use my photograph,” the veteran leader added.
Besides fighting for numbers, the Ajit Pawar camp was also left red-faced on Tuesday morning over a missing bunch of keys. As he takes on his uncle Sharad Pawar in the fight for the party’s control, Ajit Pawar was to inaugurate a new party office near the state secretariat. But when leaders loyal to Ajit Pawar reached the new ‘Rashtrawadi Bhavan’ this morning, they found themselves locked out and the keys missing.
Party leaders were seen sitting on chairs outside the locked doors as calls were made to track down the keys at the earliest. Later, visuals showed youth leaders trying to break down a lock so that they can enter the bungalow and prep it for inauguration by Ajit Pawar later in the day. Once inside, they faced a new problem: the doors of rooms inside were locked too.
The bungalow chosen by Ajit Pawar for the party office earlier belonged to Ambadas Danve, Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council and a loyalist of Uddhav Thackeray. Danve has now been allotted another bungalow.
An Ajit Pawar loyalist said the personal assistant of Danve slept at the bungalow. “We have made all arrangements inside, but the PA locked up and left. We have called him. He said he is on his way to Mantralaya and will hand over the keys to us.” They smelt a conspiracy behind the missing keys.