'Kattappa stabbing Babubali' poster put up outside NCP office in Delhi

The student wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) put up a "gaddaar" (traitor) poster outside the Delhi office today in reference to Ajit Pawar's rebellion against Sharad Pawar.

The Rashtrawadi Vidyarthi Congress put up a poster depicting a scene from the film 'Baahubali', showing Ajit Pawar as "Kattappa" who is stabbing "Amarendra Baahubali" Sharad Pawar in the back. It had "gaddaar" written on it.

The poster read: "The whole country is watching traitors hidden among one's own. The public won't forgive such people."
 

However, the poster did not name anyone.

The posters were put up a day after Ajit Pawar claimed to have the backing of 31 MLAs. As many as 31 of the 53 NCP MLAs attended the meeting called by the Ajit Pawar faction, while 14 MLAs were present at the meeting held by Sharad Pawar.

The fight also reached the Election Commission of India (ECI) with Ajit Pawar filing over 40 affidavits of MLAs and MPs in his support. The Sharad Pawar camp has filed a caveat with the poll body urging it to hear them before passing any directive concerning the factional fight.

Old posters and hoardings, which featured Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel, were removed from outside the NCP office in Delhi. The old posters were replaced with new ones with "gaddaar" written on them.

The NCP split after Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as the deputy chief minister, claiming the support of over 40 MLAs.

On July 2, nine NCP MLAs were sworn-in as ministers in the government.

With the Ajit Pawar faction staking claim to the party name and symbol, Sharad Pawar called a meeting of the national executive in Delhi today.

Meanwhile, the Sharad Pawar faction has sought the disqualification of these MLAs for engineering "secretive defections and working against the party interests".