The two factions had filed disqualification petitions against each other.
Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar. (File Photo)
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday said the Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party substantially outnumbered the Sharad Pawar group in the state legislature.
The two factions had filed disqualification petitions against each other.
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The Election Commission had ruled in favour of Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against his uncle and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, and handed him the party symbol. The EC also allowed the senior Pawar to have an independent identity for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.
“I hold that the Ajit Pawar faction enjoys an overwhelming majority within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP),” Narwekar declared.
Reading out the verdict, he said the development in NCP was intra-party dissent and cannot be held as an act of leaving the party.
“…the provision of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which deals with the disqualification of legislators on grounds of defection, should not be used to silence the members or to crush the opposition. That would be a complete abuse of the law and contrary to the contention of the law,” the Speaker added.
There are a total of 53 NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly. While Ajit Pawar-led faction holds the majority with 41 MLAs, the NCP faction led by Sharad Pawar holds the support of 12 MLAs.
Ajit Pawar had walked away with a majority of NCP MLAs in July last year and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in Maharashtra.
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