Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, on Monday, July 3, expelled five leaders who backed his nephew Ajit Pawar’s defection. The leaders expelled include former Union minister and national working president of the NCP Praful Patel and the party's national general secretary Sunil Tatkare. “I, as the National President, Nationalist Congress Party hereby order removal of the names of Shri Sunil Tatkare and Shri Praful Patel from the Register of Members of NCP Party for anti-party activities,” Pawar said.
Earlier in the day, the party also sacked three other leaders – divisional NCP chief Narendra Rathod, Akola city district chief Vijay Deshmukh and state minister Shivajirao Garje. These leaders were suspended for attending the oath-taking ceremony of Ajit Pawar as Deputy CM.
Ajit Pawar defected along with 29 other MLAs from NCP and was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan on Sunday. He will be sharing the post with former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Along with Ajit Pawar, senior leaders of NCP Chhagan Bhujbal, Dilip Walse Patil, Aditi Tatkare, Dhananjay Munder, Hasan Mushrif, Ramraje Nimbalkar, Sanjay Bansode, Dharmarav Baba Atram, and Anil Bhaidas Patil took oath as Ministers.
Before switching sides, Ajit Pawar called for a meeting of NCP legislators at his residence on Sunday. The meeting was attended by NCP working president Supriya Sule and other senior leaders. However, Sharad Pawwar said that he was not aware of the meeting.