NCP symbol battle: EC hears Sharad, Ajit Pawar factions; next hearing on Oct 9

The senior Pawar made his in-person presence before the poll panel, as stakes are high in the battle to lay claim over the party’s name and its two decades old clock symbol.

Here’s what we know so far:

– Ajit Pawar, who had moved the Election Commission staking claim to the party name and poll symbol, submitted that he had the support of 42 of the 53 MLAs in Maharashtra, six of the nine MLCs, all seven MLAs in Nagaland and one member each in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

– At the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared before the poll panel on behalf of Sharad Pawar. Senior advocates N K Kaul and Maninder Singh were present on behalf of Ajit Pawar.

– “Under the circumstances, the petitioner submits that he enjoys overwhelming support in the Organisational Wing as well as Legislative Wing of the NCP and therefore the present petition may be allowed by the Hon’ble Commission by recognising the faction led by the petitioner to be the real political party,” Ajit Pawar said in his submission to the Election Commission.

– In the hearing held today, the Ajit faction submitted its arguments in support of its claim. Their arguments are expected to continue on October 9.

– Singhvi, who represented the Sharad faction, told reporters later that the claims made by Ajit Pawar were imaginary. “We appeared (before EC) today, the hearing went for over two hours. The first part of the hearing went for an hour where we said that we are obliged to determine as a threshold issue whether there is a dispute or not,” he said.

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– Notably, Ajit Pawar had launched a rebellion against his uncle and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government on July 2. While he was inducted as the deputy chief minister, other senior NCP MLAs, including former loyalists of Sharad Pawar such as Chhagan Bhujbhal and Dilip Walse Patil, were inducted as ministers.

– Among prominent NCP faces who joined the rebellion included former ministers Dhananjay Munde, Sunil Tatkare and ex-Union minister Praful Patel, who was made the party’s working president in June. 

– Two days before rebelling against Sharad Pawar to join the Eknath Shinde government, Ajit Pawar had approached the EC on June 30 staking claim to the party name as well as symbol and subsequently also declared himself as the party president with the “support of 40 lawmakers”.

– Recently, the Sharad Pawar-led faction had told the EC that there was no dispute in the party, except that a few mischievous individuals have defected from the organisation for their personal ambitions, a reference to the rebel group headed by Ajit Pawar.

(With PTI inputs)

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Updated: 06 Oct 2023, 07:49 PM IST