“The tenth schedule will come into play only when one wants to break the party or merge it with the other. We have done no such thing…” says Praful Patel
A day after Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) held its working committee meeting in Delhi and expelled Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, Ajit Pawar and eight other rebel MLAs, the rival camp led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday claimed that the issue of having the support of two-third MLAs is futile as there is no split within the NCP.
The group also said that the organisational appointments of the NCP till now are anti-constitutional and only the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s verdict will confirm whom the party belongs to.
“The tenth schedule will come into play only when one wants to break the party or merge it with the other. We have done no such thing. The constitutional bench on Eknath Shinde matter has given remedy on inner-party disagreements. We held a meeting on June 30 and informed the decisions to the election commission. Apart from the commission, the decision maker with regard to legislators is Assembly Speaker whom we have already approached,” said Ajit Pawar camp’s senior leader Praful Patel in a press conference. Patel said that they have no plans of split or merger as they stand with majority and entire process has been completed as per the law and rule.
Patel claimed that since there is no split in the NCP, the issue of whether the Ajit Pawar camp has two-third majority does not arise. “We have much bigger number than two-third but this is unnecessary to talk about as it is not about split or merger,” he said.
The NCP has 53 MLAs and Ajit camp needs 36 MLAs to prove that two-third MLAs are with him. As of now, it has managed to register support of 33 MLAs.
The Ajit Pawar group has claimed that the party constitution was not followed while making appointments as no election was ever held within the party. When asked in that case how can the appointment of Ajit Pawar is constitutional and whether election was held to appoint him, Patel said that the party has submitted all the papers to the election commission and it will decide on the same. While claiming that the party belongs to Ajit camp, Patel said that it will not use violent methods to capture the party offices and will adopt legal route to claim party name and symbol.
