NCP has not split; meeting held by Sharad Pawar not official, says Praful Patel

A week after the second-rung leaders of NCP rebelled against the party’s founder Sharad Pawar, the Ajit Pawar-Praful Patel-led group claimed that the 25-year-old party’s ‘organisational structure’ was ‘completely flawed’ and the party has neither split nor merged with any other party.

“We are the NCP,” national working president Praful Patel asserted and reiterated that the meeting chaired in New Delhi by Pawar a day ago was illegal and had no validity.

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However, reacting to the statement, NCP national spokesperson Clyde Crasto, who represents the Sharad Pawar-Supriya Sule group, said: “If Patel believes that the NCP organization is 'structurally flawed' since the party's internal election process is yet to be completed. In that case, Patel has validated the fact that Ajit Pawar's appointment as President is also invalid.”

Patel referred to the meeting of 30 June - a couple of days before the 2 July swearing-in - in which the series of decisions were taken after extensive deliberations at the Deogiri bungalow, the official residence of Ajit Pawar.

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“The meeting took many decisions…I was appointed as the national working president. Ajit Pawar was appointed the NCP legislature party leader and speaker (Rahul Narwekar) was informed...Anil Patil was appointed chief whip in Assembly and the decision was conveyed to the Speaker’s office…Amol Mitkari was appointed as chief whip in Council and the Chairperson’s office was informed,” Patel said.

The former civil aviation minister and once close aide of Pawar said that the same day they had submitted a petition to the Election Commission with affidavits of more than 40 legislators, informing it about Ajit Pawar's appointment and staking claim over the party name and symbol.

According to him, there is no question of a split or merger. “Who will determine (which is) the (real) political party? It is in the domain of the Election Commission while actions of the legislators is the domain of the Speaker or Chairperson,” Patel said.

Patel also referred to the judgement of the Supreme Court in the Shiv Sena case - Eknath Shinde vs Uddhav Thackeray.

Patel said that the action of Jayant Patil moving a disqualification petition against Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs who had been sworn in ministers - was completely invalid. “As per the Constitution of the party, he is not the president and has no right to disqualify rebel leaders,” he said.