Action will be taken against Ajit, NCP to elect new legislative party leader today: Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said that the party will take action against Ajit Pawar for lending support to BJP for government formation in Maharashtra. He also said that NCP will elect its new legislative party leader today itself.

Addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Pawar said that his nephew's action comes under "indiscipline" and is "against the party lines".

"Action against Ajit Pawar will be taken as per the procedure," said Sharad Pawar.

"Today, a new NCP legislative party leader will be elected here at 4 pm," he added.

"I don't know if he (Ajit Pawar) has done this fearing investigating agency or not. As per my source, 10-11 MLAs were there in Raj Bhavan and out of those, 3 are already here sitting with me," said Pawar

He said that the BJP-NCP will fail the floor test.

"I am sure the Governor has given them time to prove majority but they won't be able to prove it. After that our three parties will form the government as we had decided earlier," he said.

"Parties had their MLAs list signed by all MLAs, a similar list of NCP was with Ajit Pawar, as he is CLP of NCP. I assume that he has submitted the same list. I am not sure about this but I suspect that this may be the case. We will discuss with Governor," the NCP supremo said.

In what can be termed as a surprising development, Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday took oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

The move came at a time when deliberations between Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.

Previously, the BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party following the recent Assembly polls, could not stake claim to form a government as its ally Shiv Sena remained firm on rotating the Chief Minister's post and equal sharing of Cabinet berths.

Shiv Sena parted its ways with BJP to explore ways to form a government. It, however, failed to prove the support of the required number of MLAs in the time given by state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.

The Governor had then invited NCP, the third-largest party, to prove its ability to form the government failing which President's Rule was imposed in the state.

The BJP won 105 seats in the 288-member assembly followed by Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44.