Maharashtra Speaker holds Ajit Pawar group as real NCP

Mumbai: Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday held that the Ajit Pawar-led group was the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) when two factions emerged in July 2023, and dismissed disqualification petitions filed by both the Ajit and Sharad Pawar-led factions.

"All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected," Narwekar said, reading out the ruling at the legislature complex here.

The disqualification petitions were filed by the rival factions led by Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar after Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra in July 2023 along with his followers, and was sworn in as deputy Chief Minister.

Questioning party founder Sharad Pawar's decisions or defying his wishes did not amount to defection but it was only internal dissent, Narwekar said in the ruling, adding that the tenth schedule of the Constitution, which deals with anti-defection provisions, was misused in this case.

Party leadership can not use tenth schedule to stifle dissent of large number of members by threatening to disqualify them, Narwekar said.

The events that unfolded in the NCP (in July 2023) were clearly in the nature of intraparty dissent, the ruling held.

The Ajit Pawar faction had "overwhelming" legislative majority when the party split, the Speaker noted.

Decisions of the Ajit Pawar faction constituted the `will of the NCP political party', he said.

Narwekar's ruling followed the decision of the Election Commission last week to hold the Ajit Pawar-led party to be the real NCP.

Reacting to the Speaker's decision, Supriya Sule, MP of the NCP - Sharadchandra Pawar party, said it was a "copy-paste" of Narwekar's earlier decision in the Shiv Sena disqualification case.