After the Sharad Pawar-led faction sought “banyan tree” as the election symbol for its camp, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday said that it has appealed to the Election Commission not to give the symbol to the faction as it is the logo of the Hindu outfit for six decades.
VHP Gen Secretary Milind Parande told news agency ANI said, “VHP has a banyan tree in its logo for the last 60 years. We have appealed to the Election Commission not to give the banyan tree as a symbol to NCP or any other political party so that it creates confusion among the public.”
On Wednesday, the ECI allotted “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar” name to the Sharad Pawar camp, after the faction submitted three choices of names — Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party — Sharadrao Pawar and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar — to the Commission.
The ECI’s order came a day after it gave the “Nationalist Congress Party” name and its “wall clock” symbol to the faction headed by the Ajit Pawar camp.
In its order, the ECI said that the “test of legislative majority” helped the Ajit Pawar faction to get the NCP symbol.
“Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed majority support of legislators. (The) commission holds that Ajit Pawar is the Nationalist Congress Party and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol of ‘clock’,” the ECI order said.
Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar, along with eight MLAs, walked out of the NCP party in July last year leaving a vertical split in the party, and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state. Ajit Pawar was sworn in as the deputy Chief Minister of the state.