Ajit Pawar faction is real NCP; Anti-defection law can't be used to stifle dissent: Maha Speaker

Mumbai: Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday held that the NCP faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government in the state last year, was the real Nationalist Congress Party, and rejected disqualification petitions filed by both the rival groups against each other's MLAs.   

Anti-defection provisions in the Constitution's tenth schedule can not be used to stifle internal dissent, the Speaker noted while also holding that the Ajit group had an "overwhelming legislative majority" of 41 out of 53 MLAs when the NCP split in July 2023. The Ajit Pawar group was, thus, the "real political party" when the factions emerged, Narwekar said, delivering a blow to the Sharad Pawar-led faction.   

The ruling, which followed the Election Commission's decision last week holding the Ajit-led faction as the real NCP, was criticised by the Sharad Pawar faction as a "copy-paste" of Narwekar's earlier decision on disqualification petitions filed by rival Shiv Sena factions. 

"An invisible power" was trying to finish off two key Maharashtra-based parties, NCP MP and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule alleged.  "All the petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs are rejected," Narwekar said, reading out the ruling at the legislature complex here earlier in the evening. 

Questioning then-party supremo Sharad Pawar's decisions or defying his wishes did not amount to defection but it was only internal dissent, Narwekar said, adding that the tenth schedule of the Constitution, which provides for disqualification of a legislator in case of defection, was misused in this case. A party leadership can not use the tenth schedule to stifle dissent of a large number of members by threatening to disqualify them, he said. 

The events that unfolded in the NCP in July 2023 were clearly like intraparty dissent, and the decisions of the Ajit Pawar faction constituted the `will of the NCP political party', the Speaker said. 

"Making and breaking into new forms, forging new alliances, undoing old relationships, and striking out in unknown directions...This is in the very nature of politics as we see it unfolding before our eyes. It is the reality of politics today. Surely every such action cannot qualify as defection within the meaning of the tenth schedule," the ruling said. "It is well settled by the Supreme Court that where the question arises as to which group is the (real) party, the strength of each group becomes an important and relevant factor.  It is thus obvious why the legislative majority becomes a relevant criterion...to decide which faction is the real political party," Narwekar added. 

MP Supriya Sule of the NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar (as the party headed by the senior Pawar is now officially called), said she did not expect Narwekar to give any different ruling.  

"What can you expect from Narwekar? His decision is laughable and a copy-paste of what he has done in the case of Shiv Sena where the factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray had filed disqualification petitions. An invisible power is actively trying to finish off Shiv Sena and NCP, two important state-based parties.  

"We do not have to be so naive (to expect a different result). The entire country is being run by bypassing rules, laws and constitutional norms," Sule told reporters. Notably, deciding on disqualification petitions filed by the Shiv Sena factions last month, Narwekar had given a ruling on similar lines, holding Chief Minister Shinde's group to be the real Sena but refusing to disqualify any MLA from both sides. 

On Narwekar's observation that the anti-defection provisions should not be used to suppress internal dissent, Sule said, "The invisible power dictates, that is how the Speaker's office functions and goes with a copy-paste decision." She also referred to BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy's purported letter to BJP president J P Nadda, claiming that it shows "which party conducts internal elections and which one indulges in suppressing dissent." 

Sunil Tatkare, Maharashtra president of the NCP, expressed happiness over the ruling, saying that the decision taken under Ajit Pawar's leadership last year (to join the Shiv Sena-BJP government) was upheld by the Speaker. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray - an ally of the Sharad Pawar-led party - criticised the Speaker's decision. "Those who formed the NCP have nothing to do with it now. Those who ran away with the party are the new heads. The same decision was made in the Shiv Sena case. The Speaker was supposed to function as a tribunal, but the decision was not unexpected," the former state minister said.