Narayan Rane, Maharashtra BJP leader and Union minister on the NCP split: "As the elections near many MVA leaders will join us. Earlier too, Pawar sahib said that his party is strong but today 40 people have left him. In today's times, it is not easy to build the party again. There is a BJP government both in the state and at the Centre. Uddhav Thackeray is in tension, he has got nothing left."
After NCP leader Ajit Pawar and eight other party leaders joined the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra on Sunday in a surprise and dramatic political move, the party filed a disqualification petition with the assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar against its nine leaders.
"We have filed a disqualification petition with the speaker of the assembly, and we will send hard copies as soon as possible. This disqualification petition was filed against nine leaders," said NCP leader Jayant Patil.
He further added, "They didn't inform anyone that they were leaving the party, which is against the NCP. We have also written a letter to the Election Commission of India. We are not accepting this; these nine leaders didn't inform us before doing this (leaving the party)."