Sharad Pawar's NCP seeks sitting arrangement in Oppn benches in assembly

Chief whip of NCP (Sharad Pawar camp) Jitendra Awhad has written to the Maharashtra Assembly speaker seeking separate sitting arrangement for members of the Ajit Pawar camp and the rest of MLAs of the party for the legislature session beginning Monday.

In a letter addressed to Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Sunday, Awhad said except for the nine MLAs- including Ajit Pawar- who have joined the government, the Nationalist Congress Party is part of the opposition.

Except for the nine MLAs who were sworn in, the sitting arrangement for others should be made separately. The NCP is in the opposition and we want to sit in the opposition, Awhad stated.

Narwekar had recently said there was no clear distinction between who is in power and who is not in the case of the Nationalist Congress Party.

"There will be a lot of deliberations and arguments over how to decide who represents the actual NCP, he had said.

When asked about Shiv Sena which had also witnessed a similar revolt last year, Narwekar said, The Election Commission of India (ECI) has given its verdict hence Shiv Sena's issue is solved for me. However, the NCP has written a letter to the ECI, but I do not have any update from its office.

Before Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government earlier this month, the NCP had 53 MLAs in the 288-member Assembly.

In the first meeting held by Ajit Pawar in Mumbai post the split in the party, 35 MLAs of NCP and five of the eight MLCs had marked their presence.

However, the exact number of MLAs backing the Ajit Pawar camp is not known.