Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former CM Chandrababu Naidu will also attend the NDA meeting at the Ashoka Hotel here on Tuesday. Both the parties are ex-alliance partners of the NDA.
Praful Patel on Friday for the first time disclosed that a meeting that elected Ajit Pawar as the party’s national president in place of Sharad Pawar was held on June 30 at “Devgiri”, the official residence of Ajit Pawar in Mumbai, where MLAs, office-bearers and praty workers unanimously elected Ajit Pawar as their leader.
In return, Ajit Pawar appointed Patel as the national working president on June 30 and immediately conveyed the new set-up to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar, asserting that Sharad Pawar has now no position in the party. He also told the Speaker that Anil Patel continues to be the party whip in the Assembly while he informed the legislative council chairperson that Amol Mitkari is the party’s whip in the council.
Praful Patel said his party had submitted affidavits of 40 NCP MLAs in support of Ajit Pawar to the Election Commission to stake claim on the party’s name and the electoral symbol. He said Jayant Patil’s letter to the Assembly Speaker to disqualify Ajit and eight others who joined the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government on July 2 was invalid and so the Speaker should not act on it as it is his domain to disqualify the MLAs under the anti-defection provisions of the Constitution.
He also claimed a meeting of the NCP’s working committee held by Sharad Pawar in Delhi on Thursday was not official and as such the decision taken in that meeting to expel or disqualify leaders of the Ajit Pawar faction, were illegal and not applicable.”
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