"We will see huge supporters joining Sharad Pawar": Anil Deshmukh

MUMBAI: Ahead of the meeting called by two factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Maharashtra, Former Maharashtra Home Minister and NCP leader Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday said that they'd see huge supporters joining NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Talking to the media at YB Chavan Centre, Deshmukh said, "We will see a huge number of supporters joining Sharad Pawar when he will go out of Maharashtra".

The two factions of NCP have called separate meetings on Wednesday in an apparent show of strength.

Supporters of NCP chief Sharad Pawar have gathered outside YB Chavan Centre ahead of the meeting called by the party chief.

NCP working president and MP, Supriya Sule also reached YB Chavan Centre in Mumbai.

NCP suffered a split on Sunday with Ajit Pawar joining the Eknath Shinde-BJP government along with eight other MLAs.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar has moved a disqualification petition against the nine MLAs to Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal along with Dilip Patil, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Mundo, Dharmaraobaba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Sanjay Bansode and Anil Patil joined Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government on Sunday.

"Your actions of supporting Ajit Pawar and the eight other MLAs, who have sworn oath as Ministers in violation of the party's direction and mandate, ex-facie amount to anti-party activities and that you deemed to have voluntarily left the membership of Nationalist Congress Party," Pawar said in a communication which was also sent to the two-party MPs.

"I formally remove your names from the Membership Register of the Party in view of your actions of voluntarily giving up membership of the Nationalist Congress Party," it said.

The communication said the action of MPs, "in a surreptitious manner, without the knowledge or consent of the party president, amounts to the desertion of the party, which in turn invites disqualification from primary membership".

Praful Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP, has been a close associate of Pawar and was appointed working president of NCP last month. He was a minister in the Congress-led UPA government along with Pawar. Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule had written to him for action against the two MPs.