mumbai a day after as ajit pawar looked to tighten his hold over the ncp rank and file party president sharad pawar announced the expulsion of two of his supporters rajya sabha member praful patel and lok sabha member sunil tatkare for engaging in antiparty activitieswith the ajit camp insisting that they constitute the ncp and have the required twothird number of mlas pawar and associates including jayant patil supriya sule jitendra awhad signalled a fightback by sacking the duo who held top party posts and expelling a bunch of other functionaries heading various units in the partypatel and tatkare had attended the swearingin ceremony of ajit pawar and have flanked him at press conferences along with chhagan bhujbal while he spelt out his reasons for aligning with the shindefadnavis government in his first reactions to the rebellion on sunday pawar had singled out patel and tatkare for criticism he said he had appointed them to key party posts but instead of upholding guidelines they had abandoned them in the recent reshuffle in the ncp patel along with sule was appointed working president and tatkare was made national general secretary their names have been removed from the register of members of ncp for antiparty activities sharad pawar tweeted proceedings were also being initiated for their disqualification from parliament under the 10th schedule of the constitution this was the major retaliatory move by pawar after his nephew raised a banner of revolt and joined hands with eknath shinde and devendra fadnavis on sunday along with patel and tatkare mumbai ncp working president narendra rane akola unit president vijay deshmukh and ncp general secretary shivaji garje have also been sacked for attending the ceremony at raj bhavan where ajit pawar and eight ncp mlas took oath the faction also moved disqualification notices against the mlas who joined the governmentin a counter move the ajit pawarled group has filed disqualification notices against both jayant patil and jitendra awhad for antiparty activities at a press conference praful patel announced that patil was being relieved of his responsibility as state ncp president and was being replaced by sunil tatkare the latter announced appointments to the partys women and youth wingsthrough the day both sides put out statements to argue their case justifying the action against patel and tatkare pawar said they had facilitated defections by nine legislators without the knowledge or consent of the party president he said this amounted to desertion of the party which in turn invites disqualification from the primary membership you are required to acknowledge the same and refrain from misrepresenting before any forum that you have association with the ncp party pawar said in an official communication to the duo earlier in the day supriya sule as working president had sought immediate action against her former colleagues in a letter to pawar sule said patel and tatkare acted in violation of the party constitution and indulged in antiparty activities by facilitating the swearing of oath of nine legislators