The Election Commission (EC) on Monday heard the claims of the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP over its claim on the party’s name and poll symbol, even as the Sharad Pawar-led group contended that there were discrepancies in the documents submitted by its rival.
The EC fixed November 9 as the next date for hearing the warring factions of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar over their claims to the party’s name and election symbol.
It also asked the Sharad Pawar camp to file its rejoinder to the claims made by the Ajit Pawar faction by October 30. Sharad Pawar faction’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi claimed that the EC had found discrepancies in the more than 9,000 documents submitted by the Ajit Pawar group to support its claim over the NCP’s name and poll symbol.
Ajit Pawar, who had moved the EC staking claim to the party’s name and poll symbol, submitted that he had the support of 42 of the 53 NCP MLAs in Maharashtra, six of the nine MLCs, all seven MLAs in Nagaland and one member each in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.
The faction led by Ajit Pawar had rebelled against NCP leader Sharad Pawar in June and moved the poll panel staking claim to the party’s name and symbol.
Two days before the rebellion against his uncle Sharad Pawar to join the Maharashtra government in early July, Ajit Pawar had approached the EC on June 30, staking claim to the party’s name as well as symbol and subsequently, also declared himself as the party president with the support of 40 lawmakers. Recently, the Sharad Pawar-led faction told the EC that there was no dispute in the party, except that a few mischievous individuals have defected from the organisation for their personal ambitions, a reference to the rebel group headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
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