Sharad Pawar sacks Praful Patel as NCP working president, removes him from party

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday expelled Praful Patel aand Sunil Tatkare from the party for anti-party activities. Patel was the national working president of the party, while Tatkare was NCP’s national general secretary.

“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,” Sharad Pawar tweeted.

The expulsion comes amid Praful Patel appointing Sunil Tatkare as the state chief of party.

Earlier in the day, the NCP sacked three party leaders – divisional NCP chief Narendra Rathod, Akola city district chief Vijay Deshmukh and state minister Shivajirao Garje – for attending the oath-taking ceremony of Ajit Pawar as Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister.

In a statement, the Sharad Pawar’s party said, “This act (attending Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in ceremony) is against party discipline as well as party policy.”

Ajit Pawar takes oath as Maharashtra deputy CM

In an unexpected development on Sunday, Ajit Pawar took oath as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra for the third time since 2019 in the Eknath Shinde government. Eight other NCP MLAs including Chhagan Bhujbal, Hasan Mushrif, Dhananjay Munde, Dilip Walse Patil, Dharmarao Baba Atram, Aditi Tatkare, Anil Patil, and Sanjay Bansode were also sworn in as ministers.