The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has finally split, and from the looks of it, into three parts. With leaders choosing personal survival over national goals, a convention of rebels elected former Lok Sabha speaker P.A.Sangma as the new party NCP president, ‘‘replacing’’ Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar. Praful Patel, a spokersperson of the party, maintained that Pawar was still the president of the party, while another senior party leader, V.C. Shukla, decided to float his own outfit in Chhattisgarh. A convention of rebels elected former Lok Sabha speaker P.A.Sangma as the new party NCP chief, ‘‘replacing’’ Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar. Praful Patel, a spokesperson of the party, maintained that Pawar was still the president of the party, while another senior party leader, V.C. Shukla, decided to float his own outfit in Chhattisgarh. The decision came after the failure of talks between Pawar and Sangma earlier today. ‘‘Pawar had his compulsions, I had mine and Shukla had his,’’ he said after the convention. The party rebels stated in their resolution: ‘‘The convention rejects any electoral alliance with the Congress and approves of the stand taken by Sangma. The convention replaces Pawar from the office of the NCP president and, in his place, elects Sangma.’’ ‘‘We have not expelled him (Pawar), we have only replaced him,’’ said Sangma. On whether Pawar was being asked to resign from the party, ‘‘I would like to appeal to Pawar to reconsider his decision of going with the Congress because that goes against the sentiments of our party.’’ ‘‘The symbol of the NCP is the clock and the battery of this clock is the issue that foreigners cannot take over sensitive positions in the country.Without the issue, the NCP does not exist.’’
