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The Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction is set to approach the Supreme Court after the Election Commission allotted the party name and election symbol to the Ajit Pawar-led ‘rebel’ group. The development comes nearly seven months after the senior politician ‘split’ the NCP to join the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra. Party MP Supriya Sule said the group will also consider alternative names and symbols in the coming days.
“Our documents were fine. The founding member and founding leader of this party is Sharad Pawar…but now the atmosphere is different. There is an ‘invisible power’ in the country which is doing all this. Sule said, we will fight… we will definitely go to the Supreme Court… Sharad Pawar will rebuild the party.
NCP MLA Jayant Patil said, “We will go to the Supreme Court, this is our last hope.”
According to the Election Commission, this decision was taken after prescribed tests of maintainability of such a petition which included the test of the aims and objectives of the party, the test of the party constitution and the test of majority, both organizational and legislative. Meanwhile, Sharad Pawar faction has termed the Election Commission’s decision as “murder of democracy”.
Party spokesman Clyde Crasto, however, insisted the news was not a surprise.
“Leaders of the Ajit Pawar faction were continuously saying that they will get the name and symbol along with the date… In 1999, NCP was founded by Sharad Pawar… Everyone knows that NCP belongs to Sharad Pawar… For a few months they claimed that The party and the Election Commission have given it to him… Sharad Pawar heads the NCP which is in 28 states… 25 of them supported Sharad Pawar. Now the Supreme Court will have to tell what is the truth behind all this…”
Ajit Pawar had sided with most of the NCP MLAs in July last year and supported Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra. He and eight other MLAs had filed the petition in the Election Commission two days before taking oath as ministers in the Shinde government.
(with inputs from agencies)
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Published: 06 February 2024, 09:32 PM IST
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