After Shinde's Sena, Ajit Pawar ruled to be the 'real' NCP by Maharashtra assembly speaker
Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday ruled that NCP's Ajit Pawar faction is the real Nationalist Congress Party. «The NCP constitution and the leadership structure of the party does not provide any clue to decide which is the real faction, hence, I have gone by the third yardstick which is legislative majority to decide the issue,» Narwekar said. «The Sharad Pawar faction hasn't challenged the claim of legislative majority enjoyed by the Sharad Pawar faction,» he added.
The Sharad Pawar faction has not been able to show that they have a majority in the national executive, said Narwekar. Ajit Pawar has numerical strength in the legislative assembly, he said.
«All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected,» Narwekar further said. Narwekar started reading out his ruling on disqualification petitions filed by the warring factions led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar.
«Misuse of the 10th schedule by political parties is apparent and it is to suppress dissent within the political party; an attempt to stretch the 10th schedule, this is harm to electoral democracy itself,» the Maha assembly speaker said. The provisions of the 10th schedule should not be used to browbeat or silence members within the party, he added.
Narwekar said, it was just an internal party dissent and the party was divided between two leaders Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar, going against decision of Sharad Pawar and his wishes is only dissent and it cannot amount to leaving the political
