The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar has approached the Supreme Court seeking directives to the Maharashtra Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to take action against MLAs who have shifted their loyalty to Ajit Pawar. NCP has filed disqualification petitions against 40 MLAs for anti-party activities after Ajit Pawar split the party and joined the coalition government as deputy chief minister.
The SC is expected to hear the petition on Monday. The move comes at a time when the Election Commission has started hearing the petition of Ajit Pawar, staking a claim to the party’s name and its election symbol.
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The party is looking to compel the speaker to dispose of the disqualification case filed by them in the light of SC remarks directing him to spell out the timeline within a week for adjudication of the disqualification petitions filed against chief minister Eknath Shinde and his party MLAs who split Shiv Sena and tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022, insiders said.
“On behalf of our party (Sharad Pawar led NCP), Maharashtra president Jayant Patil has filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court on September 24. We have sought directives to the speaker who has done nothing in over three months since our first disqualification petition was filed before him on July 2,” said an NCP insider.
NCP has filed three petitions for disqualification of rebel MLAs. The first petition was filed against nine MLAs including Ajit Pawar, second petition was against 20 MLAs and third against eleven MLAs. “The objective of the petition is to expedite our case as we are afraid that the speaker will decide in the Ajit faction’s favour. This will help us approach the SC and get them disqualified in a short period of time if the speaker’s decision is against us,” he added.
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction has also filed a caveat before the apex court. Praful Patel, working national president of the Ajit-led faction, confirmed this. “Since they have filed a petition, we have also submitted a caveat asking the court not to pass any order without hearing our side,” he said.
The Ajit-led faction is of the view that nothing will happen to them. “We know that the SC has refused to intervene in the speaker’s jurisdiction in the Shiv Sena versus Eknath Shinde case. It means the same will be repeated in our case,” said an insider from Ajit led faction, adding, “At the most, the apex court will ask Narwekar to give its ruling in a reasonable time and elections can be held any time next year.”
Meanwhile, the second hearing by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition filed by the NCP rebel faction staking claim to the party’s name and symbol will also take place on Monday.
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