NCP leader Sharad Pawar has confirmed that some MLAs from his party have joined the Ajit Pawar faction and allied with the BJP, but insisted that the numbers were still in favour of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance.
Whenever elections are held in the constituencies of these legislators, Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena would unitedly defeat them, he added.
He said 54 newly-elected legislators of the NCP had signed a paper along with their names and constituencies for internal purpose and these signatures may have been misused as letter of support and submitted to the governor.
"As per my source, 10-11 MLAs were there in Raj Bhavan and out of those, 3 are already here sitting with me," the NCP chief said at a joint press meet with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
He also stressed that "we had the numbers to form the government. Several independent MLAs were also with us and Congress, NCP and Sena had a combined strength of around 170. We want to form a government under Sena's leadership and we are going to do this."
At the meet, the elder Pawar warned the rebels of the anti-defection law, underlining that "all the elected MLAs of both parties had given consent to the formation of the government."
He stressed that his nephew Ajit's decision went against the party line and amounts to indiscipline. He also accused Ajit of misleading party MLAs to join his ranks.
"If this is true, the governor has also been misled," Pawar said, adding that the paper may have been taken by Ajit Pawar as the leader of the legislature party.
Pawar also said those MLAs, who were taken to the Raj Bhavan for oath-taking without their knowledge, have contacted him and informed how they were misled.
Three such legislators, including Rajendra Shingane from Buldhana and Sandeep Kshirsagar from Beed, were present at the press conference.
They said they were called to party leader Dhananjay Munde's house at 7 am and from there were taken in a car to Raj Bhavan.
Pawar said no action would be taken against those who unknowingly went to Raj bhavan for the swearing-in and were back in the party fold.
NCP legislature party meeting would be held later in the day to elect the new leader.
On the issue of action against Ajit Pawar, the former Union minister said a decision to that effect would be taken by the disciplinary committee.
Sharad added that NCP will elect its legislative party leader at 4:00 PM on Saturday. The party will later decide on the action needed to be taken against Ajit.
WATCH: Shiv Sena-NCP address the media in Mumbai https://t.co/gYVOYSQVC3
Uddhav Thackeray said Fadnavis forming the government with Ajit is a game played by BJP on Maharashtra.
He also said, "Earlier the EVM khel (game) was going on and now this is new khel. From here onwards I don't think elections are even needed."
"Everyone knows what Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj did when betrayed and attacked from the back," he said, adding that Sena workers will foil all attempts to poach party MLAs.
The press meet comes after BJP's Devendra Fadnavis earlier this morning took oath as the Maharashtra Chief Minister for the second consecutive term while NCP's Ajit Pawar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
(With PTI Inputs)