The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called the sacking of Ajit Pawar as the head of the legislative unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) unconstitutional.
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Mr. Pawar was removed by the NCP’s parliamentary board on Saturday following the dramatic turn of events in the State and allegations he did not have the authority to submit letters of support from NCP MLAs in support of the BJP. However, the BJP said the election of Jayant Patil replacing Mr. Pawar was unconstitutional since it did not have the approval of Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
“Because the NCP had submitted on October 30 a letter authorising Ajit Pawar’s election as the legislative head of the party to honourable Governor, his removal must also be approved by the Governor,” said senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar.
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Speaking just before the hearing of a petition in the Supreme Court filed by the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena, Mr. Shelar said even the petition did not dispute Mr. Pawar’s election as party’s legislative head. “It for these reasons, the BJP believes the removal of Mr. Pawar as the head of the party legislative unit is illegal and unconstitutional in the wake of these two technical issues,” he said.
The BJP had on Saturday claimed the support from 170 MLAs with the help of letters with signatures of the MLAs submitted by Mr. Pawar, following which he was sworn in as State’s Deputy Chief Minister along with Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister. However, the NCP had claimed the letters of support from the party MLAs was ‘stolen’ by Mr. Pawar without approval of the board or party.
