Ajit Pawar-led group has no right to sack me as Maha NCP president, says Jayant Patil

Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Jayant Patil. File Pic

Maharashtra NCP President, Jayant Patil, stated on Tuesday that the group led by Ajit Pawar has no authority to dismiss him from his position. He further asserted that all 53 NCP MLAs are aligned with party chief Sharad Pawar.

A day earlier, the Ajit Pawar camp appointed Sunil 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.

Hours before Jayant Patil was replaced by the Ajit Pawar camp, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had removed the party's working president Praful Patel and general secretary Tatkare for engaging in "anti-party" activities.

The action was taken against Patel and Tatkare after they attended the swearing-in ceremony of Ajit Pawar who took oath as deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP cabinet on Sunday, while eight NCP MLAs joined as ministers.

"The faction led by (Ajit Pawar) is a 'Notionalist' Party. They have no right to remove me from the post (of NCP state unit president)," Jayant Patil told reporters.
He also said he had taken action against the nine MLAs who have joined the government.

The Sharad Pawar-led NCP had moved a petition before Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar seeking the disqualification of Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs.

"All MLAs are with us and you will know tomorrow," Jayant Patil claimed.
The Ajit Pawar camp in a letter submitted to Raj Bhavan had claimed that they have the support of 40 MLAs of NCP.

(With inputs from PTI)