Mumbai, Nov 8 (IANS) The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday cracked the whip and expelled eight rebels who entered the electoral fray against the official nominees of the party and the MahaYuti allies.

Those expelled include Bapu Bhegde (Maharashtra unit Vice President); Krishna Andhare (Akola rural district chief); Vishwambhar Pawar (Nanded North district president); Pujara Vyavahare (Nanded women's wing chief); Dyaneshwar Bhamre (former Dhule zilla parishad member); Mamta Sharma (Dahisar taluka chief); Dharmendra Tupkar (Tusshar taluka chief, Bhandara district) and Anand Sindhikar (state youth wing's secretary from Nanded).

"They party functionaries in the list have filed nominations against the nominees of NCP and MahaYuti partners. They, thereby, adopted anti-party stand, and indulged in tarnishing the MahaYuti's image. By doing that intentionally, they have breached the party discipline," said Maharashtra unit NCP chief Sunil Tatkare.

NCP's move came days after the BJP, which is a 'big brother' in MahaYuti and is contesting 148 seats, had already expelled 40 rebels from 37 constituencies for violation of party discipline.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena was in the midst of issuing expulsion letters to the rebels during the day.

The MahaYuti had succeeded in calming most of the rebels to withdraw their nominations on the last date of its filing on November 4.

BJP's two-term MP Gopal Shetty was the first to withdraw from the race from Borivali seat and support party nominee Sanjay Upadhyay after his meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and national general secretary Vinod Tawde.

The other BJP rebels, who withdrew their nominations include, Vijayraj Shinde (Buldhana); Kishor Samudragupta (Nagpur Central); Amit Ghoda (Palghar); Vishwamitra Gaikwad (Udgir); Dadarao Keche (Arvi); Kiran Thakre (Karjat Kharagpur); Sangita Thombre (Kej), Deorao Holi (Gadchiroli), among others.

As far as Shiv Sena is concerned, Swikruti Sharma, who is the wife of encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, withdrew her nomination from Andheri East following Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's intervention.

The Shiv Sena rebels who withdrew their nominations include Suraj Solunke (Osmanabad), Jagdish Dhodi (Boisar), Prashant Lokhande (Shrirampur), Avinash Rane (Anushaktinagar) and Dhanraj Mahale (Dindori).

In the case of Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Sujit Zavre-Patil withdrew from Parner, Nana Kate (Chinchwad), Rajabhau Phad (Parali), Abdul Shaikh (Nevasa) and Naresh Arsade and Subodh Mohite(Katol). However, Shiv Sena rebel Prakash Nikam has remained in the fray from Vikramgad constituency.