EC recognises Ajit Pawar-faction as official NCP on basis of ‘legislative majority’, allots symbol

Comes a year after the body recognised Eknath Shinde’s faction as the official Shiv Sena. Sharad Pawar faction calls it ‘murder of democracy’.

File photo of NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, among others | Representational image | ANI

Mumbai: The Election Commission of India Tuesday recognised the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party as the official party and granted it the party’s “clock” symbol. 

The decision, which comes nearly a year after the election body recognised Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena as the official Shiv Sena, deals a major blow to the Sharad Pawar faction. 

In its order, the ECI said that the “test of legislative majority” helped the Ajit Pawar faction — which rebelled and broke away from the Sharad Pawar faction in June last year —  clinch 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, adding that the Sharad Pawar faction will be recognised as a separate party. 

According to the ECI, 41 MLAs from Maharashtra and seven from Nagaland are with Ajit Pawar. Two MPs are also with the faction, the election body said. 

For the Rajya Sabha election on 27 January, the Sharad Pawar faction can claim a new name, for which they should provide three choices, the ECI said, adding that the faction has until 4 pm on 7 February to file their application, failing which the MLAs will be treated as independents. 

The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP has called the development a “murder of democracy”.

“We all know that NCP was formed by Sharad Pawar and he was the president of the party. But this way the decision taken, because of pressure, is a murder of democracy. This is unfortunate,” Anil Deshmukh, former home minister of Maharashtra and an MLA of the Sharad Pawar faction, told the media.  

Rohit Pawar of the Sharad Pawar faction posted a photo of the NCP founder on X with the caption: “Even if the party and symbol have been hijacked by misusing power, the father of the party is with us.”

Meanwhile, NCP Ajit Pawar faction workers celebrated across the state by bursting crackers. Ajit Pawar said, “Our lawyers put our side forward effectively and hence we accept the decision of ECI humbly.” 

“We welcome the ruling of the EC…We live in a democracy and any decision can be challenged. Maybe attempts will be made to challenge this at the Supreme Court or high court… All I would like to say is that the decision we made was correct and through EC, our decision has been proven correct,” said Praful Patel of the Ajit Pawar faction.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)