3 of 4 NCP MLAs back after ‘rescue’

Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday claimed that three more MLAs who were incommunicado since Saturday morning have come back to the party fold. The MLAs claimed that they were following Ajit Pawar’s instructions believing that it was the party’s decision to join hands with the BJP.

With this, the NCP now claims that all 53 MLAs, barring Ajit Pawar, have returned to the party and that the junior Pawar’s coup has failed.

The three MLAs who returned to Mumbai are Daulat Daroda, Nitin Pawar and Narhari Zirwal, who represent the Shahapur, Kalawa and Dindori seats respectively.

They were kept in a hotel in Gurgaon and were watched by BJP workers and local police, the NCP claimed.

“Local NCP workers from Gurgaon carried out a daring rescue operation and freed three MLAs, who had been trapped in a hotel there. They have been brought back to Mumbai before the trust vote in the legislature,” NCP’s spokesperson Nawab Malik said.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed that the MLAs were “rescued in a joint operation” by Shiv Sena and NCP workers.

Mr Raut alleged that the NCP MLAs were detained by either the BJP or the state police of Haryana where the saffron party is in power.

“They can stoop to any level to gain political power,” he said.