Amidst the labyrinth of legal intricacies, the Sharad Pawar faction has embarked on a legal odyssey, challenging the pronouncement of the Election Commission (EC) bestowing official recognition upon Ajit Pawar’s faction as the legitimate Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
In the preceding week, the NCP faction spearheaded by Sharad Pawar declared its intent to seek recourse in the apex court against the EC’s decision to confer the party name and emblem upon a dissident group led by Ajit.
On the 7th of February, the Ajit Pawar faction lodged a caveat application in the Supreme Court, anticipating a legal tussle in the event that the Sharad Pawar faction contests the EC’s directive. A caveat application, a preemptive legal maneuver, seeks to forestall any adverse ruling without affording the litigant an opportunity to present their case.
Dealing a substantial blow to NCP’s progenitor, Sharad Pawar, on the 6th of February, the EC proclaimed that the Ajit Pawar faction stands as the authentic NCP. The electoral body also assigned the ‘clock’ symbol to the group helmed by Ajit Pawar. The concession granted the Sharad Pawar faction a solitary opportunity to christen their new political entity, with the obligation to submit three preferences by 3 pm on February 7, 2024.
In the previous week, the EC christened the NCP faction led by Sharad Pawar as ‘Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar.’
This edict from the electoral authority transpired a day subsequent to the conferral of the Nationalist Congress Party name and the “clock” electoral symbol to the faction led by Ajit. Ajit Pawar had orchestrated the defection of a majority of NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly in July of the preceding year. The EC enjoined the Sharad Pawar group to propose three names, one of which could be allocated, considering the impending Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
