Mumbai: In a show of strength, two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party held parallel meetings in in Mumbai.
Sharad Pawar, the leader of NCP, is meeting his members at YB Chavan Auditorium in Mumbai, while Ajit Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, is at a meeting of NCP MPs, MLAs, MLCs, district heads and state delegates at Mumbai Education Trust (MET) Bandra.
The meeting at YB Chavan Auditorium has Sharad Pawar’s picture on the stage. The group led by Ajit Pawar has put Sharad Pawar’s picture along with their leaders and has also shown the party’s election symbol ‘clock’ prominently.
Party sources said that 35 out of 53 NCP MLAs were present at the party meeting called by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday. The number will go up further, news agency PTI quoted sources as saying. Five out of eight NCP MLCs are also attending the meeting happening in suburban Bandra, PTI said citing sources. According to former principal secretary of Maharashtra Legislature Anant Kalse, Ajit Pawar camp needs the support of at least 36 MLAs to avoid disqualification.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s supporters gathered at his residence in south Mumbai on Wednesday, hours before the show of strength meetings arranged by him and Ajit Pawar who split to become the deputy chief minister. Outside Silver Oak, the senior Pawar’s residence in south Mumbai, a party worker was seen holding a banner which read: ‘83-year-old warrior waging a fight alone’.
MLA Anil Patil claimed that as many as 40 of the 53 party MLAs are with Ajit Pawar. These are the first meetings involving party functionaries for both factions since Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs, including Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil and Hasan Mushrif, joined the Eknath Shinde government on Sunday. Both factions have claimed that they have most MLAs with them.
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