Sharad Pawar asks MLAs to attend meeting today, Ajit camp issues whip too

Rival factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, will hold separate meetings in Mumbai on Wednesday, even as both have appointed two chief whips for their respective factions. The Ajit Pawar group will congregate at the Mumbai Education Trust (MET) facilities in suburban Bandra at 11 am, while the Sharad Pawar side has scheduled a gathering for 1 pm at the YB Chavan Centre in south Mumbai.

The Sharad Pawar faction's top whip, Jitendra Awhad, has invited party MLAs, MPs, and office holders from all over the state to the conference. Ajit Pawar has, meanwhile, named Anil Patil as the chief whip for his faction, who has also actively propagated the meeting. The talks are anticipated to clarify the precise number of MLAs backing each party despite conflicting statements.

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Ajit Pawar, who recently took oath as deputy chief minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP cabinet, asserts that all 53 NCP MLAs support him. However, the Sharad Pawar camp disputes this, stating that Ajit Pawar only enjoys the backing of 13 MLAs.

Ajit Pawar will need the backing of at least 36 MLAs in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, which has 53 MLAs, in order to avoid invoking the anti-defection law's provisions. A disqualification petition has already been submitted by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP against Ajit Pawar and the eight MLAs who were sworn in as ministers.  In a tit-for-tat, the Ajit Pawar camp has asked the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker to disqualify state NCP president Jayant Patil and Jitendra Awhad from membership of the House.

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