Neither Ajit Pawar nor Sharad Pawar have produced MLAs in their support
Ajit Pawar has claimed the support of 40 of the 53 MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after splitting from his uncle Sharad Pawar and joining the Maharashtra government, but two days after he was sworn in with eight MLAs, it is not clear which faction is bigger.
Reports claim Ajit Pawar has, in a letter to the Governor, claimed the support of more than 40 MLAs, along with their signatures. The claim had many MLAs alleging that they unwittingly gave their signatures without knowing the purpose.
Neither Ajit Pawar nor Sharad Pawar has produced MLAs in their support, and a handful declaring their allegiance to Pawar Senior on Twitter are the only NCP leaders to make it official.
Two MLAs who attended Ajit Pawar's oath ceremony but returned to Sharad Pawar later are Makrand Patil and Balasaheb Patil. An MP, Amol Kolhe, has also said he will return to Sharad Pawar's faction.
Those who have put up posts declaring their support for Sharad Pawar, sharing their photos with him, are Anil Deshmukh, Jitendra Awadh, Jayant Patil, Rohit Pawar, Sandeep Kshirsagar, and Prajakt Prasadrao Tanpure.
"Always with respectable Sahab (Sharad Pawar)," wrote Jitendra Awadh.
NCP MP Amol Kolhe also posted his message of support: "When the mind and the heart are at war, listen to the heart. The mind may sometimes forget morality, the heart will never do so."
As for the Ajit Pawar faction, the MLAs who were sworn in on Sunday with him are Chhagan Bhujbal, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil, Anil Patil, Hasan Mushriff, Aditi Tatkare, Dharmraobaba Atram, and Sanjay Bansode.
Jitendra Awadh has said that the numbers in each faction will be clear only when Sharad Pawar starts dialling the MLAs.
Ajit Pawar has, till now, been seen with only nine NCP MLAs, though he claims he has the party's backing and Sharad Pawar remains its leader. With Sharad Pawar's long-time aide Praful Patel by his side, Ajit Pawar said he would reveal his numbers when required.
For now, Ajit Pawar doesn't seem to have the two-third majority needed to split the party and avoid action under the anti-defection law. If he does have these numbers, he can claim the party name and symbol.
Sharad Pawar, 82, has launched what he calls his mission to rebuild the party from the ground up.
Team Sharad Pawar is consulting legal experts on the disqualification of the defectors.
The decision on whether Ajit Pawar and his faction should be disqualified will be taken by Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who hasn't decided on a similar question for his Shiv Sena, which split a year ago after a coup that ended with rebel Eknath Shinde forming a government with the BJP.
Sources close to Sharad Pawar say he is not inclined to make the same mistake as Uddhav Thackeray, who shut the doors on all defecting MLAs by dubbing them "traitors" when they left with Mr Shinde.
Sharad Pawar knows that the nine MLAs who joined the Maharashtra cabinet won't return, but he wants to make sure the others know they can return anytime. "Action has been taken against only these nine. For the others, Supriya Sule said they are like family, giving them the option to return" the sources said.