Ajit Pawar (L) is NCP founder Sharad Pawar's nephew (File).
Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday referred to last week's Election Commission order - recognising Ajit Pawar as the leader of the 'real Nationalist Congress Party' - and rejected petitions seeking disqualification of MLAs who rebelled against Sharad Pawar last year, triggering a split and a battle for control of the NCP.
Mr Narwekar said the MLAs who joined Ajit Pawar in rebelling against his uncle - and allied with the BJP and a similar breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena - to form a new government, could not be disqualified simply because they had questioned the latter. This, he said, was only "internal dissent" and could not amount to defection, which would have invited disqualification.
"Party leadership cannot use (the) Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (which deals with anti-defection provisions) to stifle dissent of large numbers of members by threatening to disqualify them," he said.
The sequence of events preceding the split were due to dissent within the undivided NCP, he added.
Mr Narwekar also took note of the "overwhelming" support Ajit Pawar's camp had at the time of the division, and said, "I hold, therefore, that (the) Ajit Pawar-led NCP is the real political party... has the legislative majority (and) this is undisputed," he said, "All petitions seeking disqualification are rejected."
Also therefore, decisions of the Ajit Pawar faction are the "will of the NCP", he ruled.
The Supreme Court last month gave Mr Narwekar till February 15 to decide on disqualification petitions against MLAs affiliated to Ajit Pawar's group.
Before the split the NCP had 53 MLAs. After the dust settled, 41 sided with Ajit Pawar, leaving 12 with Sharad Pawar as he tried to re-assert control over the party he helped found in 1999, and has since led.
Last week the Election Commission said the Ajit Pawar faction would be recognised as the 'real NCP', thereby giving it control over the party name and symbol (a clock) weeks before the Lok Sabha election and polls to fill six to-be-vacant Rajya Sabha seats in the state.
READ | Ajit Pawar's Faction Named Real NCP In Setback For Sharad Pawar
The poll panel gave Sharad Pawar mere hours to decide on a new name, and his faction was eventually renamed as the Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar.
READ | Sharad Pawar's Party Assigned New Name By Election Commission
Sources said the Commission's decision was based on the numerical strength of the two factions, something Mr Narwekar referred to, and relied on, in this instance too.
A furious NCP called the Election Commission's actions "murder of democracy".
"The whole world knows who founded the NCP. So what the Election Commission did, despite that, is the murder of democracy..." Anil Desmukh, a former Minister, said.
Sharad Pawar's camp has approached the Supreme Court over the EC order.
The decision played out like the Sena Vs Sena fight, in which the faction led by Eknath Shinde (made Chief Minister after rebelling and allying with the BJP) was called the 'real Sena', leaving Uddhav Thackeray racing, weeks before an election, to find a new identity for the party his father founded.
With input from agencies
NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.