New Delhi: Hinting at foul play, Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Saturday said that the oath was administered without any verification of the signatures. He added that the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance is still intact and the trio will legally and politically fight against BJP's "political betrayal".
The statement came after senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar claimed that Ajit Pawar gave letter of support on behalf of all 54 NCP MLAs. He said that they do not need separate letter from each legislator. "Letter from Leader of Legislative Party is considered the letter of the party," he told News18.
Later NCP's chief spokesman Nawab Malik said some MLAs were deluded into attending the ceremony in which Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy CM, along with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari administered the oath to Fadnavis and Pawar at the Raj Bhavan in Mumbai at around 7.30 am.
In the press conference, which was also addressed by Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress made it clear that it was going to ace the floor test, which is now due in the Maharashtra assembly, along with their alliance partners.
"We were of course disappointed ever since we got to know about today morning's development. It is sad and unfortunate. All values of constitution and democracy were trounced. But we will take this to its logical conclusion. We will fight it politically and legally. We will defeat BJP together in the floor test," said Ahmed Patel.
The Congress leaders also defended the party’s decision to deliberate for weeks on the government making process, saying they had not taken a moment’s delay in sitting down with leaders of the other two parties ever since it received a call from Uddhav Thackeray.
"We did not take a moment’s delay. As soon as Uddhav Thackery called the Congress president, we immediately got going. First we decided to take our alliance partner NCP into confidence. Principally we agreed and held several meetings together some last minute things were to be sorted with Shiv Sena for which we had come to Mumbai today," Patel said.
Congress’ press conference came a couple of hours after a joint press conference by Shiv Sena and NCP.
Addressing a joint press conference in Mumbai, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said that his nephew Ajit's decision is act of indiscipline, and no NCP worker is in favour of NCP-BJP govt.
"An honest NCP worker can never be a part of BJP government formation," he said, adding that around 11 MLAs along with Ajit joined hands with BJP. However, four-time NCP MLA Rajendra Shingane said that they were "misled". Pawar further said that they can't rule out a
Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala hit out at the BJP, accusing it of taking a "contract to kill" democracy in India.
"It has been proven that the BJP has taken a contract to kill the country's democracy. The Governor has once again proved to be (BJP chief Amit) Shah's 'hitman'," he said in one of the tweets.
Surjewala also posed a number of questions on the government formation in Maharashtra such as when was the President's rule removed, the claim of forming government presented and the list of MLAs' support given to the governor. "When did the MLAs appear before the Governor? Why was the swearing in done in such a manner like thieves do?"
"This is called betrayal of people's mandate and giving contract for killing democracy," he said in another tweet.
The Congress leader also tagged media reports on allegations of Ajit Pawar's involvement in scams. "Lust for power washes away principles and corruption," Surjewala wrote on Twitter, tagging a September tweet of Fadnavis in which he had said the BJP will never ally with the NCP as it had "exposed" the latter's corruption.
The Congress has been alleging that the governors of many states are acting at the behest of the BJP. Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who was at the forefront of the Congress-NCP-Shiv Sena negotiations, said illegal and evil manoeuvres take place in the secrecy of midnight. "Such was the shame that they had to do the swearing in hiding. This illegitimate formation will self destruct," he said in a tweet.
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