A meeting of newly elected members of the NCP, led by Sharad Pawar, was held at NCP Bhavan in Ballard Pier. During the meeting, party MLA Jitendra Awhad was appointed as the group’s leader in the legislative assembly.
In a significant move, Rohit Patil, the son of late NCP leader RR Patil and the youngest member of the legislature, was appointed as the chief whip of the party. Additionally, MLA Uttam Jankar has been appointed as the whip of the party for the support of Rohit Patil in the assembly.
Announcing the appointments, NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil stated that his party has not decided it’s legislative party leader in the meeting and that can be done during the assembly session. One of the 10 MLAs, Sandeep Kshirsagar from Beed, didn’t attend the meeting due to prior engagement.
In the recently concluded assembly elections, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition won only 49 seats. Among them, Shiv Sena (Thackeray faction) emerged as the largest party with 20 seats, while Congress secured 17 seats. NCP, led by Sharad Pawar, managed to win only 10 seats. As a result, none of the parties in the MVA have enough strength to claim the position of Leader of the Opposition.
However, the MVA partners are proceeding with the appointment of legislative party leaders and Whips. Recently, the Shiv Sena (UBT) held a meeting in Mumbai to elect its legislative party leader and whip. Now, NCP (SP) has also announced its appointments for these key roles.
Jayant Patil stated that the NCP (SP) also supported the claims made by other alliance parties pertaining to foul play in the EVM machines and increase in the 8% voting percentage in the recent assembly election.
Jayant Patil claimed that the vote percentage on the polling day went up by 8% after 5pm, which has raised doubts, and demanded that elections be conducted on the ballot paper.
Patil also alleged that the 8% voting which was increased after the voting hours ended is doubtful. He also alleged that the Election Commission has shut its website after the two days of counting and depriving people from gaining information.
Patil demanded that the government should be formed as soon as possible and Mahayuti should act on their promises and increase the money of Ladki Bahin and MSP to farmers.
