Ahmednagar polls: 18 NCP corporators who voted for BJP candidate expelled

MUMBAI : Left red-faced over its corporators voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Babasaheb Wakale, in the Ahmednagar mayoral elections last month, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) expelled its 18 newly-elected corporators on Saturday. The party also sacked its district president, Manikrao Vidhate, from the post, holding him responsible for defying the party.

On December 28, all the NCP corporators had voted for Wakale, creating a flutter in political circles. Following the embarrassment, the party had issued showcause notices to its corporators to explain their action. After they failed to reply, state NCP chief Jayant Patil, announced to expel them from the party.

“The corporators had defied the party orders of voting for the Congress candidate in the mayoral election. They voted for the candidate of a communal party instead. The corporators were given seven days to explain the anti-party act. The district president too, was asked to explain why he failed to apprise the party about the development and issue a whip to the corporators. All of them opted to not reply to the notices. Hence, the leadership decided to act against them,” Patil said in a press statement.

The NCP corporators voting in favour of BJP candidate had led to a slugfest between the BJP and its saffron ally Sena.

While the BJP had then claimed that Sena never asked for its support, the latter had said it was seeking support from the Congress as well as the NCP for its candidate, after it emerged as the single-largest party by bagging 24 seats in the 68-seat local body. The BJP had 14 seats.

“The action has been taken by state party president in consultation with the top party leadership,” said party spokesperson Nawab Malik.