Maharashtra Speaker rejects plea to disqualify MLAs of Ajit Pawar faction

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday dismissed the petitions to disqualify MLAs belonging to Ajit Pawar's faction after ruling it as the real Nationalist Congress Party.

Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday dismissed the petitions to disqualify MLAs belonging to Ajit Pawar's faction after ruling it as the real Nationalist Congress Party.

Delivering a verdict on the disqualification petitions filed by the two factions within the NCP against each other, the Speaker said that Ajit Pawar's faction substantially outnumbered the Sharad Pawar faction in the state legislature.

“I hold that the Ajit Pawar faction enjoys an overwhelming majority within the NCP,” Narwekar declared.

Reading out the verdict, Narwekar said the development in NCP was intra-party dissent and cannot be held as an act of leaving the party.