List of NCP MLAs given by Ajit Pawar to governor not official: Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar
NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Mumbai: Trying to recover from the political earthquake at dawn, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar said that the list of supporting MLAs submitted to Governor B.S. Koshyari by 'rebel' Ajit Pawar was not an official list of the party.

"It was the attendance sheet of MLAs prepared at a party meeting which has been given to the Governor as Ajit Pawar's support letter," Pawar said in a joint press conference with the Shiv Sena, endorsing what another senior party leader Nawab Malik said earlier in the day.

According to NCP MLA Rajendra Shingne, 10-11 NCP MLAs went to the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday morning. "Ajit Pawar had called me to discuss something and from there I was taken with other MLAs to Raj Bhavan. Before we could understand oath ceremony was complete. I rushed to Pawar Sahab and told him I am with Sharad Pawar and NCP," said Shingne. "My support is for the NCP and Sharad Pawar," he added.

Another MLA said that they were asked to come for a meeting 7am. "Ajit Pawar called me last night for the meeting," he said, during the joint presser. "The swearing in was over in 45 minutes and only then we realised what had happened."

In the press conference, Pawar senior alleged that Ajit Pawar's claim of support from the NCP was false. "I got a call from a colleague at 6:45am. There is no way Ajit Pawar has the cadre support to join the BJP government. An honest NCP worker can never be part of the BJP government. Public opinion is against joining hands with the BJP. Ajit won't be able to prove the support of the NCP MLAs that he has claimed. What Ajit has done is against NCP's ideologies," the NCP supremo asserted. He added that the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP have numbers to form the government.

Shiv Sena hits out at BJP

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, who also spoke on the occasion, expressed concern over "the kind of political games going on in the country".

"First it was in Bihar, then Haryana and now Maharashtraa. They break parties and legislators, and we exposed them. We are together with the NCP now and shall take the future steps unitedly," Uddhav Thackeray asserted.

The senior Pawar said that the Sena-NCP-Congress alliance was on the verge of forming the government when he learnt of what happened at 7 a.m. on Saturday.

"We have the total support of 169 MLAs, so we (three parties) came together. We have the numbers and were about to form the government. I am surprised how the Governor has done this today," Pawar said.

In a stunning political development, Governor Koshyari on Saturday morning administered the oath of office to BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the new Deputy Chief Minister.

Sharad Pawar reiterated that the NCP is not supporting Ajit Pawar's decision to go with the BJP along with some NCP MLAs.

"The NCP is totally opposed to this. It's an anti-party move and Ajit Pawar has flouted party discipline," Pawar said.

He warned that henceforth, nobody from the NCP will remain present at Ajit Pawar's public meetings and anybody from the party tries to go would risk losing their membership.

"If they go with the BJP, how will they get re-elected? After they quit the NCP, we shall unitedly defeat them in the elections. Even for the swearing-in ceremony, some 10-11 MLAs had gone, but some (around half of them) have returned," Sharad Pawar pointed out.

Three NCP legislators, including Rajendra Shingne and Sandeep Kshirsagar, recounted how they got calls from Ajit Pawar at around midnight and were told to reach Raj Bhavan around 7 a.m. on Saturday.

"I had absolutely no idea of what was going on till I actually reached Raj Bhavan. It was only when the swearing-in ceremony started that I realised," said Shingne, a former minister and now NCP state Vice President.

All the legislators who were lured by Ajit Pawar asserted that they were still with NCP and had nothing to do with the breakaway group.

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