Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar would announce his outfit’s name and symbol on Wednesday, a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the NCP name and its “wall clock” symbol will be with the AjitPawar-led camp.
The Sharad Pawar-led faction also said that it would approach the Supreme Court against the ECI’s decision.
It is likely that the new party by Sharad Pawar could likely retain the words “Nationalist” and “Congress”, The Indian Express reported, citing sources. Among the options for the party’s new symbol are “rising sun”, “tractor” and “wheel”.
In its order on Tuesday, the poll body had asked the Sharad Pawar group to “claim a new name” and “provide three preferences” by 4 PM today, since the Rajya Sabha elections to six seats in Maharashtra were due on February 27.
The EC said that the decision followed the laid-out tests of maintainability of such a petition which included tests of aims and objectives of the party constitution, test of party constitution and tests of majority both organisational and legislative.
Sharad Pawar, in his six-decade-long political career, has contested on at least four different election symbols – pair of bulls, charkha, cow and calf and hand and clock. Before founding the NCP, he was with the Congress, Congress (R), Congress (U), Congress (Socialist) and Congress (I).
Meanwhile, the Ajit Pawar faction on Wednesday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking a hearing if the Sharad Pawar group moves before it challenging the ECI order.
The caveat has been filed to ensure that no ex-parte order is passed against the Ajit Pawar faction if the other group moves the apex court.
Following the ECI’s decision on Tuesday, NCP MP Supriya Sule called the decision a “victory of invisible people”, adding that she was “not surprised” by the order.
Sule said, “We are clearly doing two things. First, we are going to the Supreme Court in the next 48 hours. Second, the Election Commission has given us an option to give them three names and three symbols by tomorrow evening, so we will of course do that.”
She also drew a parallel between the ECI’ ruling in the Shiv Sena (undivided) case and said, “Both parties (the NCP and undivided Shiv Sena) were born in Maharashtra and led by Marathi people. This is one more example of how the invisible powers make decisions that would hurt the Marathi people and the state.”
In July last year, a majority of NCP MLAs walked away and supported the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government. Ajit Pawar was later sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.