Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party president Jayant Patil on Sunday announced that the party has moved disqualification petitions against Ajit Pawar and 8 others who ditched MVA and took oath as ministers in the National Democratic Alliance or NDA government in the state led by Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde.Their act is illegal and as they kept Sharad Pawar and the party in the dark, following which a complaint was filed with the disciplinary committee of the party headed by Jayprakash Dandegaonkar. Following the recommendation of the disciplinary committee, the NCP has moved disqualification petitions against the nine MLAs with the state legislature through a mail,” Patil said at a press conference late Sunday."A physical copy will also be submitted soon. We have requested the Speaker Rahul Narvekar to give us a hearing at the earliest," Patil added. He said the party also approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the same issue.
Earlier, in a surprising turn of events that in some ways resembled the split in the Shiv Sena almost a year ago, Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar took oath as Maharashtra deputy chief minister, with eight other party legislators also joining the NDA government in the state.Ajit Pawar said all MLAs are with him, and they have joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government as a party.NCP working president Supriya Sule said Ajit Pawar joining the Shinde-Fadnavis government is "painful" but her relationship with him would remain the same.