Ajit Pawar senior leader and MLA of the party, says Supriya Sule

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is a "senior leader and MLA of the party", Supriya Sule said on Thursday when asked about the status of the former in the Nationalist Congress Party.

Sule, on being queried about whether the NCP has suffered a split, also said taking affidavits from functionaries by the faction led by founder Sharad Pawar is a continuous process within the party.

Speaking about Ajit Pawar, the Baramati Lok Sabha MP said, "Now, he has taken a stand that is against the party, and we have given a complaint to the assembly speaker and are awaiting his response."

She also brushed aside the statement against Sharad Pawar by Dilip Walse Patil, who joined the Eknath Shinde government along with Ajit Pawar and seven others on July 2.

Addressing party workers at Manchar in his assembly constituency Ambegaon on August 20, state cooperation minister Walse-Patil said the people of Maharashtra never gave Sharad Pawar power on his own or allowed him to single-handedly form the government.

Asserting that Sharad Pawar became chief minister of Maharashtra four times, Sule said, "In 1990, when the Congress got a clear majority in the state, Pawar saheb became the CM. After the formation of NCP (in 1999), Pawar saheb never contested the assembly polls."

The NCP used to fight on 118 seats in alliance (with Congress and other smaller units) so getting the magic figure of 145 in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly by itself was not possible, Sule pointed out.

The names of chief ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Jaganmohan Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) and (Bahujan Samaj Party chief) Mayawati that Walse Patil has mentioned all "revere Pawar saheb", said Sule, who is NCP working president.

Asked to elaborate on her statement that there were three attempts to break the NCP, Sule said several moves were made to break her party, "sometimes successful and sometimes unsuccessful".

"The term saam, daam, dand, bhed are words of (Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader) Devendra Fadnavis. Be it party or elections, remaining in power is important for them (BJP). There is no governance in the government," she alleged.