Supreme Court of India has been approached by Ajit Pawar led faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for a caveat petition to ensure that they get a chance for presenting their case before any decision is made regarding the Election Commission’s declaration of their faction as the “real NCP”.
The Ajit Pawar faction moved the Apex Court with a petition after the faction led by Sharad Pawar announced that they will appeal the Election Commission’s decision in the top court.
The party founder Sharad Pawar faced a major setback on tuesday when the Election Commission announced that the Ajit Pawar faction is the “real NCP”.
As a major setback, the commission also allotted the NCP symbol ‘Clock’ to the group led by Ajit Pawar.
The 140 page order said that the faction led by the petitioner, Sh Ajit Anantrao Pawar, is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol “clock” of the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
Sharad Pawar camp called it a murder of democracy, whereas the Ajit Pawar faction celebrated the verdict.
The Ajit Pawar faction had filed the plea under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968, seeking to use the official symbol of NCP.
Using the test of “legislative majority,” the Commission noted that the Ajit Pawar faction has the majority of legislators (51/81). It said the other tests – the test of “aim and objectives” and the test of “organisational majority”- were not conclusive in the case and hence, the test of legislative majority was used.
Keeping in view the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections for six seats from Maharashtra, the ECI allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to claim a new name for its political formation for the purposes of the Rajya Sabha polls. It noted that if the Sharad Pawar faction failed to intimate the preferred three names by 4:00 pm of February 7, the MLAs claiming allegiance to Sharad Pawar will be treated as independent MLAs.