Sharad Pawar calls for NCP National Executive meeting amid split

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has arrived in Delhi for the party National Executive meeting on Thursday. Notably, the crisis in NCP has escalated with the two factions calling separate meetings on Wednesday in an apparent power show. With the Ajit Pawar faction staking claim to the party name and symbol, Sharad Pawar summoned a meeting of the national executive in the national capital.

Notably, NCP suffered a split on Sunday with Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP government along with eight other MLAs. After which, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar has moved a disqualification petition against the nine MLAs to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal along with Dilip Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Mundo, Dharmaraobaba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode and Anil Patil joined Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government on Sunday.

As a result, Sharad Pawar removed his close aide Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare from the party claiming that they were involved in the anti-party activities.

Ajit Pawar likely to meet Eknath Shinde

Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar is also likely to hold talks with the chief minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over the allocations of the portfolios to the other members.

Here’s what Chhagan Bhujbal said after being asked about involvement in NDA

“We don’t know if they have included us into the NDA, or if they are about to do so. It will be decided after a discussion between our leader Ajit Pawar and them (BJP leadership),” says Chhagan Bhujbal, one of the prominent leader in Ajit Pawar group, on being asked about the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar is part of the NDA.

He further added, “When such a big decision is taken in a party, it is never because of one single reason. Ajit Pawar and others highlighted yesterday about what all has been going within the party since 2014.”