Mumbai, Nov 23, TEN Network | Hours after Ajit Pawar revolted with a few MLAs and took oath as deputy chief minister, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said most of the MLAs were unaware of what was going on and have now started coming back.
During a joint press conference with Shiv Sena, Pawar presented three MLAs– Rajendra Shinge, Sandeep Kshirsagar and Sunil Bhusara– who said they were present with Ajit Pawar at the time of the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan this morning.
“Ajit Pawar’s decision is against the party line and is indiscipline. No NCP leader or worker is in favour of an NCP-BJP government,” he said.
The NCP chief also said that the Devendra-Fadnavis-led government won’t be able to pass the floor test in the state assembly.
“Even if Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has given them a deadline of November 30, this government will not be able to pass the floor test,” he said.
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray termed the development as a “mockery of democracy”. In his brief statement in the joint briefing of Sena-NCP, Thackeray took a veiled jibe at chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. “I think from now on elections should not be announced and instead of saying ‘I will return’ some people should use Fevicol and sit in the chair,” Thackeray said.
Pawar has also called an urgent meeting of NCP legislators in which a decision on removing Ajit Pawar as NCP’s leader of legislature party is likely to be taken. The party will also elect its new legislature party leader. “I cannot take such a decision on my own. The decision on disciplinary action will have to be taken in the legislators’ meeting today,” Pawar said replying to a question on disciplinary action against Ajit Pawar.
He also said that those who unknowingly went with Ajit Pawar will not face any action. “But those who made a choice and knowingly went to Raj Bhavan to participate in the oath-taking ceremony will have to face action,” the NCP chief said.
Pawar said those who chose to defect will have to face anti-defection law and people will also not support them in the bypolls. “Moreover, all the three parties Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP will ensure that they do not get re-elected,” he said.
Thackeray, who was flanked by Aaditya Thackeray and Sena leader Sanjay Raut, said, “This is a surgical strike that has been done in the dead of the night on Maharashtra and the people of the state will avenge it.”
On being asked if there is any fear of Sena MLAs going with the BJP, Uddhav Thackeray dared the opposition and said “They can try and see. Maharashtra is not going to leave them”. Thackeray added that he is with Pawar in this fight.
The BJP and Sena, which fought the assembly elections in Maharashtra together, fell out over the chief minister’s position and equal distribution of portfolios, ending a three-decade-old alliance. The national party said the Sena had betrayed them.
Governor BS Koshyari invited the BJP, Sena and NCP, respectively, but no party could prove a majority within the prescribed deadline.
President’s Rule was imposed in Maharashtra on November 12 after the governor told the Centre that no party was in a position to form the government in the state.
And on Saturday, the BJP formed a government with the help of the NCP’s Ajit Pawar.
The BJP had staked claim to form the next government in Maharashtra late on Friday on the strength of its own 105 legislators along with the NCP’s 54 and 11 Independent legislators, a senior BJP leader said on Saturday.
The national party now claims it has the support of 170 legislators, 25 more than the 145 lawmakers needed for the majority mark in the 288-member house. The party has been given a week until November 30 to prove their majority on the floor of the assembly. (HT)
