Ajit Pawar’s Appointment As NCP Chief “Illegal”: Sharad Pawar’s Faction To Poll Panel: Sources

New Delhi:

The appointment of Ajit Pawar as the Nationalist Congress Party’s National President is “illegal”, the Sharad Pawar-led faction fumed Friday in its reply to the Election Commission of India.

Sources said the Sharad Pawar faction also stressed “there is no split in the NCP”, which was divided this year after the nephew rebelled against the uncle and joined hands with a rebel faction of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party. Ajit Pawar, 63, was restored as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister.

NCP boss Sharad Pawar’s faction underlined its August statement on this issue; in which Mr Pawar, 82, said “a few” had left to “take a different political stance (but) this does not constitute a split”.

“It’s not like a majority of the people from the party are going out. Some people have taken a different stand, democracy allows them to do so. It’s not a split in the party,” he had said.

Meanwhile, sources also said the Sharad Pawar faction had moved a disqualification petition against forty of its ex-MLAs who had signed and submitted affidavits supporting Ajit Pawar’s rebellion.

From the Sharad Pawar faction’s point of view, those 40 MLAs now hold no position in the party