Congress leader and Sharad Pawar faction›s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the Ajit Pawar side of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) had filed an affidavit on October 26 saying that Pratap Singh Chowdhury supports Ajit Pawar while the former was shocked and later filed an affidavit saying he knows nothing about it.
«On 26 October under the nose of the commission, the other side filed an affidavit saying this man supports Ajit Pawar. He was shocked. He has filed an affidavit saying I know nothing about this, I never supported Ajit Pawar against Sharad Pawar, and I am a strong supporter of Sharad Pawar. The poor man comes to the Election Commission, files an affidavit,» Singhvi said speaking to reporters about the veteran NCP leader.
«They are making a fool of themselves. He is a founder member along with Sharad Pawar. He is an NCP person at the national level. They have no shame…,» Singhvi said in an attack on the Ajit Pawar faction.
Speaking about the proceedings before the Election Commission, Singhvi said, «We have shown that the Election Commission has the jurisdiction and should file a criminal complaint for such open forgery and fraud which is their power under the IPC. And we have requested them to consider filing that.»
Blasting the Ajit Pawar section of the NCP for splitting up from the parent party, the Congress leader said, «This is nothing but an afterthought. It is a non-maintainable, false, frivolous, vexatious petition. It should be dismissed at the threshold with cost against these people.»
Earlier this year, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar took a sizeable section of NCP leaders and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party, thereby forming a part of the Eknath Shinde government in the state.