Splits to purges: In Pawar-Ajit battle for control over NCP, an echo of Uddhav-Shinde’s Sena war

A year ago, Eknath Shinde had rebelled against the then Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Sena and led his breakaway faction to align with the BJP and form their coalition government, with Shinde taking oath as the CM despite the BJP being the senior partner.

Shinde’s rebellion in June last year not only split the Sena but also toppled the then Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. He also claimed that his faction was the “real Sena”, maintaining that “I have the support of 40 out of our 56 MLAs and 12 out of 19 Lok Sabha MPs.” Citing its “majority support” in the Sena Legislature Party as well as the Parliamentary Party, the Shinde Sena then went on to stake claim over the Shiv Sena’s title and its election symbol, “bow and arrow”.

Amid the two Senas’ fierce political and legal battles, which has played out in the streets and in various courts, the Election Commission (EC), in its ruling in February this year, upheld the Shinde Sena’s claim over the party’s original title and poll symbol.

The Uddhav Sena was forced to adopt a new name, Shiv Sena (UBT), and a new symbol, a flaming torch. It has challenged the EC’s order in the Supreme Court, which has been pending now.

On the similarities between the NCP and the Sena’s splits, highly-placed sources in the state secretariat said, “It would be imprudent to comment on NCP developments at this moment, but it seems to be heading the same way as the Sena.”

A close aide of Ajit said, “We have looked into all legal and constitutional aspects before taking the big leap. From the beginning adequate safeguards were ensured before we proceeded to join the Shinde Sena-BJP coalition in the state.”

In the 288-member House, the NCP has 53 MLAs, of which the Ajit faction claims a majority support. The Pawar Senior faction contests this claim.

Like the scenes witnessed in the Sena, the game of sackings and filing disqualification petitions involving the two NCP factions has also begun. Pawar Sr kicked off by expelling from the party two senior leaders — working president Praful Patil and general secretary Sunil Tatkare — who had crossed over to the Ajit group.

On July 2 night itself, the Pawar Sr camp filed a disqualification petition against nine NCP MLAs, including Ajit, who joined the government. This has again put the disqualification plea ball in Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar’s court.

The Pawar Sr faction also appointed Jitendra Awhad as the NCP Legislature Party leader and its Chief Whip in the state Assembly.

On July 3, the Ajit faction filed a counter-petition before the Speaker, seeking disqualification of Jayant Patil (state party chief) and Awhad, who are affiliated to Pawar Senior. It also appointed Ajit as the Legislative Party leader, Anil Bhaidas Patil as the Chief Whip and Tatkare as the state party president.

In a similar situation that arose last year, the warring Sena factions had filed pleas and counter pleas before the Speaker seeking disqualification of MLAs from each other’s groups. Both the factions had also challenged the decisions by then Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, who was then acting Speaker, and

those by Narwekar (who was appointed as the Speaker subsequently) over the appointments of the Chief Whips and the Legislative Party leaders.

Both the Sena groups had then also got affidavits of support signed by party workers, functionaries and elected representatives, which were later submitted before the EC to prove their respective majority claims. The NCP factions have also started following suit, thereby indicating that they are gearing up to approach the EC to stake their respective claims over the party’s name and symbol.

Both the NCP groups may also slug it out in various courts like the Sena factions did. Hearing the two Senas’ petitions, the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in its verdict in May this year, had termed as “unjustified” former Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s decision asking the Uddhav government to prove his majority on the floor of the House following the Shinde group’s rebellion. However, the apex court said the Uddhav-led government could not be restored as CM Uddhav had resigned without facing the floor test.

The apex court had then also asked Speaker Narwekar to decide the disqualification petitions pending before him within a “reasonable period”.

The Uddhav Sena has now again approached the apex court with a fresh plea seeking a direction to the Speaker to decide expeditiously the disqualification pleas against the Shinde Sena MLA pending for a year.

The Ajit camp had challenged the expulsion of Praful and Tatkare by Pawar, claiming that since they were appointed by the latter at the party’s national convention he would again have to convene the party conclave to sack them.