Sharad Pawar challenges EC's recognition of NCP Faction in SC

NEW DELHI: Having lost control over the party he founded, veteran politician Sharad Pawar has moved the Supreme Court against the Election Commission order recognising the faction led by his estranged nephew Ajit Pawar as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Pawar, who founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 after their expulsion from the Congress, filed the petition through lawyer Abhishek Jebaraj on Monday evening.

Before the Maratha stalwart approached the apex court, the Ajit Pawar faction had filed a caveat through advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh to ensure that no ex-parte order is passed in favour of the Sharad Pawar group.

In a body blow to Sharad Pawar, the Election Commission announced on February 6 that the Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP. The poll panel also allotted the NCP's election symbol 'clock' to the group led by Ajit Pawar.

The EC considers the support enjoyed by each claimant in the party’s organisational and legislative wings in case of a split, besides examining its constitution and the list of office-bearers that was submitted to it when the party was united before allotting the election symbol.

Ajit Pawar, currently a deputy chief minister in Maharashtra, had walked away with a majority of NCP MLAs in July last year and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde.

"This commission holds 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" for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968," the EC had said in its 140-page order.

The commission had said there were serious inconsistencies in terms of timelines in the claim of the Sharad Pawar group on organisational majority, which resulted in unreliability of their claim.

It also expressed the hope that political parties will adopt good disclosure practices of organisational elections and internal party democracy.

Sharad Pawar is also locked in a battle with Ajit Pawar in the Maharashtra assembly, having sought the disqualification of his estranged nephew and eight MLAs loyal to him.

The apex court had on January 29 extended the deadline for Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the Sharad Pawar faction's disqualification plea till February 15.