Two days after taking oath as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and turning state politics upside down, Ajit Pawar will on Tuesday inaugurate the new Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) office near Mantralaya in Mumbai. The junior Pawar has claimed to have the support of over 40 MLAs from the party and said that he would claim the NCP symbol. With Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar at two corners of the NCP, the 'name' fight for the party that happened during the Shiv Sena crisis is set to repeat in Maharashtra.






The infighting in the NCP intensified on Monday as rival factions led by Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit announced a slew of sackings. Smarting from the surprise revolt by Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar said he would build the NCP from scratch as the party filed a disqualification petition against the nine MLAs who joined the Maharashtra government on Sunday.


On the other hand, Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the party and MLAs were with him and the notice for disqualification against him and the eight newly sworn-in ministers was meaningless.


"Law will decide if we have rebelled. Only the Election Commission of India will decide to whom the party belongs," the junior Pawar said at a press conference.


After Sunday's drama, NCP president Sharad Pawar led the charge on Monday, sacking party's working president Praful Patel and general secretary and treasurer Sunil Tatkare after both sided with Ajit Pawar in his revolt. The NCP supremo's action came soon after NCP working president Supriya Sule, in a letter, demanded disciplinary action against Patel, known to be a close aide of Sharad Pawar, and Tatkare, whose daughter Aditi took oath as minister on Sunday.


In a tit-for-tat move, the Ajit Pawar faction appointed Tatkare as the Maharashtra NCP president in place of Jayant Patil. It also asked the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to disqualify Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad from membership of the House. Addressing a press conference, Praful Patel announced Ajit Pawar as the leader of the NCP legislature party.


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