The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Ajit Pawar-led NCP not to use the name, photo, or videos of his uncle, NCP-SCP chief Sharad Pawar, ahead of the November 20 assembly elections in Maharashtra.
The top court also instructed the Ajit Pawar-led faction to “learn to stand on its own legs” and maintain individuality of the parties.
“Learn to stand on your own legs, now that you have ideological differences with Sharad Pawar. Once you have disassociated from him, you should not use his name, photo, or video,” it said.
Ajit Pawar, currently the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, had split from Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While he was permitted to retain the original NCP, Sharad Pawar formed a new faction—NCP-SCP.
The latest directive was issued after NCP-SCP lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi informed the court that Ajit Pawar was not complying with an earlier order of the Supreme Court and was leveraging his uncle’s goodwill to gather votes in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
Last week, the Supreme Court had also directed Ajit Pawar’s faction to publish disclaimers in newspapers, including Marathi dailies, within 36 hours, clarifying that the use of the ‘clock’ symbol by the NCP remains a sub-judice matter.
The order came from a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan, following an assurance by senior advocate Balbir Singh, representing Ajit Pawar, that a disclaimer would be published within the stipulated timeframe.