Nationalist Congress Party General Secretary Munaf Hakim on Friday resigned from the party as well as Parliament, claiming that it was difficult to defend the party’s image after Sharad Pawar’s apparent support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Rafale defence deal. Hakim, who represented the Katihar Lok Sabha seat, told PTI that more NCP workers might follow suit.

“Sharad Pawar has never supported fundamental forces,” said Hakim, who also is the former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission. “How can he say Narendra Modi is not guilty in the Rafale case in the minds of the public? A JPC [Joint Parliamentary Committee] probe has not yet been set up.”

Earlier in the day, Lok Sabha MP Tariq Anwar quit the party. Referring to Anwar, Hakim said, “Tariq Anwar is one of the founder members of the party. He was not consulted while making an important stand [on Rafale] of the party public. In such a case, it is difficult to defend the party’s image after Pawar saheb supported Modi in the Rafale case.”

Earlier this week, Pawar told a Marathi news channel that “people do not have doubts” over Modi’s intentions on the defence aircraft deal. The Nationalist Congress Party president also said the Opposition’s demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jets “made no sense”. He, however, said there would be no harm in the government disclosing the prices of the fighter jets.

The Nationalist Congress Party, later, clarified that Pawar has not given a clean chit to Modi on the Rafale deal nor has he made any statement defending the prime minister. Party spokesperson Nawab Malik reiterated the party’s demands that the central government disclose the price of the jets and that a Joint Parliamentary Committee conduct an inquiry into the matter.

In an attempt to control the damage, party leader Supriya Sule also defended her father. Sule said it was disappointing that people do not remember that Pawar had also raised doubts about the defence agreement. She tweeted the three questions Pawar had asked the government about the deal.