Maharashtra: Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP, rules ECI
NCP chief Sharad Pawar reacts to nephew Ajit's rebellion, says 'some fell pray to BJP's tactics'
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday (February 6) ruled that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is the real party. The decision is a setback to the party's founderand veteran politician Sharad Pawar who is the uncle of Ajit Pawar.
The name 'Nationalist Congress Party' and the electoral symbol has been given to Ajit Pawar faction.
The ECI however, has given Sharad Pawar faction a one-time option to claim name for a new political formation the veteran politician may want to form. But if he wants to do that, it will have to be done by 3 pm on February 7.
The latest decision from the ECI came after more than 10 hearings spread over more than six months.
What has ECI said?
Explaining its decision, the poll panel said the verdict was given after laid-out tests of the maintainability of the petition. These included tests of aims and objectives of the party constitution, tests of a majority both organisational and legislative and test of party constitution.
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The hearings began on July 1, 2023. Both, the Ajit Pawar faction (petitioner) and Sharad Pawar faction (respondent), had fielded strong legal teams. Mukul Rohatgi, Neeraj Kishan Kaul and Maninder Singh represented Ajit Pawar side while Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Devdatt Kamat were in the senior Pawar's corner.
The poll panel said that serious inconsistencies were found in terms of timeline in claims made by Sharad Pawar group when is sought to assert that it had the organisational majority. This, said ECI, made the claim untenable.
The election commission said in its order that perhaps time has come for political parties to consider "voluntary wider public disclosures of party constitution, amendments thereof, if any internal electoral steps such as publication of electoral college, dates of elections, time and venue of elections of different tiers, candidates, compliant redressal mechanisms within their organizations, and list of elected office bearers, etc."
"Such disclosures on their websites shall keep the most valuable stakeholder of electoral democracy, that is the electorate at large duly informed," the poll panel said.
(With inputs from agencies)