MUMBAI, Feb 7: The Sharad Pawar-led group of the NCP on Wednesday said it will approach the Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s order recognising the rival Ajit Pawar faction as the “real” party and allotting it the “clock” election symbol.
Clyde Crasto, a spokesperson of the ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’, the name allotted by the EC for the group led by the former Union minister, said the poll panel’s order goes against a Supreme Court directive which gives importance to a political party over its legislative wing in case of a dispute.
“We will obviously go to the Supreme Court. There is a Supreme Court directive which says that legislative party cannot be chosen over the political party. So if the decision has gone against the Supreme Court’s verdict then we will go approach to the Supreme Court because we have faith in it,” Crasto said.
On Tuesday, the EC gave the Nationalist Congress Party name and the “clock” election symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar, who had walked away with a majority NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly in July last year and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government.
The Ajit Pawar faction is the ‘real’ Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the EC had said in its ruling that came as a major setback to party founder Sharad Pawar.
EC has stabbed democracy in the back: Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday alleged that the Election Commission has stabbed democracy in the back through its decision to recognise Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s faction as the real NCP.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Raut said history has not seen injustice of the kind that happened with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.
He said the Shiv Sena and the NCP were weakened because these are the only two parties that protected the Marathi “asmita” (identity) and raised voice against injustice to Maharashtra.
“The Election Commission has stabbed democracy in the back,” Raut said.
“Now to murder democracy, the matter has been given to (Maharashtra assembly speaker) Rahul Narwekar,” he added referring to the on-going disqualification proceedings against NCP MLAs filed by the two rival factions.
Raut asserted that the real Shiv Sena will be where the Thackerays are and the same is the case with the real NCP where Sharad Pawar is.
Real power of democracy: Fadnavis
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said those who murdered democracy after the 2019 state assembly elections have now realised the real power of democracy.
His remark came a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognised the faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and also allotted the party’s poll symbol ‘wall clock’ to his group. The decision came as a setback to party founder Sharad Pawar.
“The Election Commission’s decision is a victory of democracy and majority, especially in view of what happened after the 2019 assembly elections in Maharashtra. People’s mandate was rejected and democracy was murdered at that time,” Fadnavis said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the undivided Shiv Sena had contested the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections together.
But after the results, the Sena snapped ties with the BJP and joined hands with the NCP and the Congress to form Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
“Those who murdered democracy in 2019 have now realised what the real power of democracy is,” Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.” The EC not only took into the consideration the majority’s opinion in the NCP, but it also went through the Constitution of the party as well as other mandatory procedures among others,” the former chief minister added (PTI)
