Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday dismissed disqualification petitions lodged against Ajit Pawar faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by senior politician Sharad Pawar. The factions in the NCP emerged back in July 2023.
The Maharashtra speaker referred to the legislative majority principle and observed that Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed majority support of MLAs in the legislative assembly and can be considered the real NCP. He added that the resolution that Ajit Pawar faction had support of 41 out of 53 MLAs is not disputed.
Rahul Narwekar said that Ajit Pawar had support of MLAs and they outnumbered the Sharad Pawar faction. He further stated that the switch by MLAs did not fall under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution and hence did not merit disqualification. The Speaker noted that the respondent cannot be disqualified as Ajit Pawar faction constituted the will of the party, therefore, the petitions against them are liable to be dismissed.
He also mentioned that none of the averments of the Sharad Pawar faction fall within the Tenth Schedule. He underlined that the Schedule is meant to prohibit defections while protecting democracy. He expressed that he is pained to see the apparent misuse of Tenth Schedule by parties to suppress dissent and open new directions in a tussle for power to suit private interests rather than prevent harm to elected representatives.
Notably, the cross petitions filed by Ajit Pawar faction against members of the Sharad Pawar faction were also dismissed by the speaker. Rahul Narwekar’s verdict came in the petitions filed after the rebellion of Ajit Pawar group and a split in the party in July 2023.
Sharad Pawar faction first filed disqualification petitions against nine MLAs of the Ajit faction who were sworn in as ministers in ruling Eknath Shinde government before proceeding to file petitions against the remaining 31 MLAs of the junior pawar faction. Later, Ajit Pawar group filed cross petitions against the 10 MLAs of Sharad Pawar group.
On February 6, the Election Commission had also ruled that Ajit Pawar’s faction was the real NCP and permitted the faction to use the clock symbol for the party.