Pawar Vs Pawar: Will First Have To Decide Who Represents NCP As A Party, Says Maharashtra Speaker

Jayant Patil, the state NCP president, has petitioned Narwekar to disqualify Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs who joined the Shiv Sena-BJP administration two days ago.

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Tuesday stated that he must first determine if the Nationalist Congress Party is in power or opposition in the House and who represents it, news agency PTI reported. Jayant Patil, the state NCP president, has petitioned Narwekar to disqualify Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs who joined the Shiv Sena-BJP administration two days ago.

Speaking with a Marathi news channel, Narwekar stated: “I can not divide the NCP into two factions as there is no official split. I will have to ascertain whether the NCP is in power or not (in the Assembly)," PTI reported. 

On Patil's letter nominating a new whip and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, the Speaker said: “I will first have to decide who represents the NCP as a political party. Then I will decide whether they have the support of enough MLAs to make such changes.” 

On Monday, Narwekar informed reporters that his office had not received any petition stating a schism in the Sharad Pawar-led party.

Ajit Pawar was the Assembly's Leader of the Opposition until taking the oath as deputy chief minister on Sunday.

In the 288-member Assembly, the NCP has 53 MLAs.

Earlier today, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena has approached the Supreme Court, seeking directives to the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly to promptly resolve the pending disqualification petitions against MLAs from both the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faction and the Thackeray faction. This plea comes in the wake of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar and eight Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), including Praful Patel and Chhaggan Bhujbal, joining the Shinde government.

The plea was filed by Sunil Prabhu, an MLA from the Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction), who highlighted that a previous Supreme Court constitution bench ruling on May 11 had asked the Speaker to take a decision on the pending disqualification petitions at the earliest, reported legal news website Bar and Bench. However, no action has been taken thus far, according to Prabhu. The plea argues that the constitutional requirement of fairness mandates the Speaker to promptly address the issue of disqualification.