Maha Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide on Leader of Opposition

Mumbai, July 3 (IANS) Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar said that he had received the Nationalist Congress Party's letter seeking the disqualification of nine rebel MLAs who have joined the ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, here on Monday.

The Speaker said he had no idea of the exact number of MLAs supporting the new Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar -- who dramatically split the NCP on Sunday afternoon.

On the NCP's letter appointing senior leader Dr. Jitendra Awhad as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)'s new Leader of Opposition, the Speaker said that the decision on this will be taken by him after considering all the rules and regulations.

Late on Sunday, state NCP President Jayant Patil said that he has submitted a letter to disqualify the nine MLAs who took oath as Ministers and violated the party rules by joining the government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Besides, the NCP has also given letters appointing Dr. Awhad as the new Leader of Opposition as well as the Chief Whip of the NCP Legislature Party, even as several of those who have gone with Ajit Pawar are now reportedly having second thoughts.

"You will come to know our real strength in the next few days...As far as we are concerned, only the nine persons have gone out owing to some misinformation," said Patil.

In Mumbai, the Ajit Pawar faction said on Monday that they are the real NCP and will stake a claim for the same with the Election Commission of India (ECI). This is 12 hours after NCP President Sharad Pawar stated that he will not give a legal challenge to the rival faction's claim on his party, but would prefer to "go to the peoples' court".