How NCP ‘rescued’ 4 MLAs from Gurguram hotel: A blow by blow account

An act from the political drama in Maharashtra played out in Gurugram on Monday where four legislators of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) were “rescued” from the city in a late night operation.

The four MLAs have been incommunicado since NCP’s Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister on Saturday morning. Members of the NCP’s youth wing located them at a five-star hotel in Gurugram’s Udyog Vihar.

Three of the MLAs were sent back to Mumbai and a fourth one has been kept at an undisclosed location in Delhi owing to his ill health, said NCP student leader Sonia Duhan, who was part of the “rescue”.

The party said MLAs Daulat Daroda, Anil Patil, Nitin Pawar and Narhari Zhirwal were kept at the hotel against their wishes.

Duhan alleged that 100 to 150 BJP workers were keeping a close watch on the NCP lawmakers. She claimed that the MLAs reached out to NCP chief Sharad Pawar and said they were being kept at a five-star hotel in Gurugram but couldn’t confirm their location.

“Two teams of 100 [NCP] workers each were formed after it was confirmed they were in a hotel in Udyog Vihar. Most of the workers remained outside the hotel but some party leaders, including me, booked a room in the hotel,” Duhan added.

The MLAs managed to “escape” from the hotel between 10.30 and 11.30 pm on Monday.

NCP workers said they had tried to contact the MLAs on Sunday afternoon at ‘Kingdom of Dreams’, where they had gone for lunch, but without any success.

Dheeraj Sharma, president of the NCP youth wing, said the MLAs were made to believe that the decision to support BJP was made by Sharad Pawar.

The BJP refuted NCP’s claim and dared them to release videos and pictures of the “rescue”.

“This is a baseless allegation. The new BJP government in Maharashtra under Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar is going to sustain for five years and this has forced the opposition to act funnily,” said Raman Malik, BJP spokesperson in Haryana.