The Nationalist Congress Party filed a disqualification appeal with Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar after party leader Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs took the oath of office and joined the BJP-Sena government in Maharashtra on Sunday, throwing the party into disarray.
Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and will be sharing the post with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis. Ardent Sharad Pawar supporters Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse Patil, along with Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dharmobaba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode, and Anil Patil were also sworn in as ministers.
After the swearing in ceremony, the party has written to the Election Commission of India (EC) stating that Sharad Pawar, who founded the NCP in 1999, continues as the party president and that there is no change in the leadership. They also urged the EC to hear them before acting upon on any request from the Ajit Pawar group.
According to sources, a meeting is being held at Ajit Pawar’s residence to discuss the power-sharing formula. “A discussion is being held regarding allocation of ministries to Ajit Pawar and the eight NCP MLAs who have joined the Shinde-led government,” sources said, as reported by NDTV.
The new Deputy Chief Minister has claimed he has the support of practically the entire party. He also staked claim to the party’s name and symbol, a lot like Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after the split in Shiv Sena last year .
On June 30 2022, Maharashtra’s then-Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde left the Shiv Sena with 40 of its 55 MLAs, leading to a vertical split in the 57-year-old party. With support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shinde was responsible for the collapse of the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition’s government led by the then-Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Sharad Pawar, deeply humiliated embarrassed by his nephew’s claim that the NCP is supporting him, said the truth “will be out soon”. “I have called a meeting of the party leaders tomorrow, and there we will discuss the issue,” he told reporters shortly after Ajit Pawar was sworn in.
NCP state president Jayant Patil said the nine MLAs were disqualified the moment they took the oath of office and joined the Eknath Shinde administration.
According to Jayant Patil, a complaint was made at the state disciplinary committee, after which a disqualification petition was filed with the Assembly speaker by email, adding that the party will also submit the petition physically. “We have also submitted the petition on WhatsApp and iMessage and have urged the assembly speaker to hear it at the earliest,” Patil said.
Attacking the rebellious ministers, Patil said that nine MLAs cannot be a party. “They violated the party line by taking the oath of office without the NCP chief’s consent. Technically, nine MLAs cannot participate in the party. Rahul Narvekar, speaker of the Assembly, is expected to grant us time as soon as feasible.
Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena tweeted: “Some people have taken up the task of cleaning up Maharashtra politics. Let them have their way. I just spoke with Mr. Sharad Pawar. He said “I am strong. We have the support of the people. We will rebuild everything again with Uddhav Thackeray.” Yes, people will not tolerate this game for long,” .
According to experts, even if Ajit Pawar has the support of 50 of the party’s 53 MLAs, his uncle Sharad Pawar, as the party chief, can still ask for the disqualification of the rebels under 10th Schedule of the Constitution.
With the split provision removed from the 10th Schedule in 2003, one of the options available is to merge with another party. Even in that case under the recent judgment of a constitution bench of the Supreme Court, the original party has to merge (with another party) to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.
During the hearing of the Shiv Sena case in March, the Supreme Court said the anti-defection law applies even if a faction splits from a political party and manages to stitch up a majority within the party. CJI DY Chandrachud said whether a camp is majority or minority makes no difference under the 10th Schedule.
“A split does not postulate that people who are party to the split leave the party… The Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) also operates when a group of persons, whether minority or majority, claim they belong to the same party,” Justice Chandrachud had said.
So for Ajit Pawar, the road ahead should be to approach the poll body and prove that he is the original NCP. Till that happens, he and his loyalists will face disqualification under the current laws.
Out of the total 53 NCP MLAs in the state, 30 are apparently with Ajit Pawar.
“Now we have 1 Chief Minister and 2 Deputy Chief Ministers. The double-engine government has now become triple engine. For the development of Maharashtra, I welcome Ajit Pawar and his leaders. Ajit Pawar’s experience will help,” Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tweeted.
Under the anti-defection law, any legislator who defects from the party leadership or its position on a specific topic may be subject to disqualification procedures. The law applies to both Parliament and state legislatures. The Act provides two exceptions where a group of MPs can abstain from voting without incurring legal repercussions: if one-third of the lawmakers in a political party resign from it, or if two-thirds of the lawmakers merge with another party. It wouldn’t be seen as a defection in any scenario.
‘Politicians who voice their disagreements with the party leadership run the risk of losing their seats in the legislature. In Balchandra L Jarkiholi & Ors vs B.S.Yeddiyurappa & Ors(2011) it was stated that any kind of internal rift in a political party is not a ground for defection from the party,” noted Kumar Kartikeya, a Delhi-based legal researcher.