'Mahayuti alliance's goal is to win more than 45 Lok Sabh seats in Maharashtra'

Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party NCP president Sunil Tatkare on Wednesday said the ruling Mahayuti alliance will strive to win more than 45 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming elections reported news agency PTIHe hinted that some leaders are interested in joining the Ajit Pawarled party without elaboratingSome leaders criticise Ajit Pawar and NCP but there are others who are interested in joining us Our alliance has the set the goal to win more than 45 seats in the Lok Sabha elections Tatkare told reporters reported PTIThe Mahayuti alliance comprises Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress PartyThe Election Commission allowed us to retain the party name but some invisible power is criticising us but we wont lose patience We are fighting a battle of ideology We will strengthen the party network Tatkare added reported PTIHe said Congress always used minorities as a vote bankTatkare claimed that if Ajit Pawar was not appointed as Deputy CM in 2019 the then Maha Vikas Aghadi government wouldnt have survived reported PTIThe contribution of Ajit dada is more than any other leader He plays the biggest role in ensuring the partys victory the NCP MP added reported PTIMeanwhile the Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar and 10 MLAs belonging to Sharad Pawars NCP faction on petitions challenging the speakers decision to not disqualify them reported PTIAnil Patil chief whip of the Nationalist Congress Party NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had filed two petitions challenging the speakers decision to not disqualify 10 MLAs from the Sharad Pawar camp reported PTIA division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla on Wednesday also issued notice to the Maharashtra legislature secretariat and directed all the respondents to file their affidavits to the petitionsThe HC posted the matter for further hearing on March 14 reported PTIPatil in his petitions requested the high court to quash the speakers recent order by declaring it bad in law and also disqualify all the 10 legislatorsThe petitions challenged the legality propriety and correctness of the order passed by Narwekar dismissing the disqualification petitions filed against the MLAs belonging to the Sharad Pawar faction reported PTIPatils counsel Mukul Rohatgi on Wednesday told the court that the major findings made by the speaker were in Ajit Pawars favour except the part where the 10 MLAs were not disqualifiedThe speaker has ruled that the Ajit Pawarled NCP is the real political party Even the Election Commission had ruled in Ajit Pawars favour But still the 10 MLAs from Sharad Pawars faction were not disqualified Rohatgi said reported PTIThe actions of the 10 MLAs were against the interests of the party and hence they ought to have been disqualified the senior counsel arguedThe speaker has wrongly held that this was a case of internal strife within the party But that is not our case This is not just a case of internal dispute Rohatgi said reported PTIThe bench after hearing the arguments briefly said it would issue notices to the respondents and direct them to file affidavits and hear the matter further reported PTINarwekar last week held that the faction led by Ajit Pawar is the real NCP but didnt disqualify MLAs of either factionWith inputs from PTI