The Sharad Pawar faction will challenge the Election Commission’s decision to recognise Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Kumar’s group as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Supreme Court, Supriya Sule told reporters on Tuesday.
“I think what happened with Shiv Sena is what is happening with us today. So, this is not a new order. Just the names have been changed but the content is the same. We will fight…We will definitely go to the Supreme Court,” she said.
Sule, who is the daughter of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, said that their INDIA alliance partner Shiv Sena (UBT) had also faced a similar decision over the rift in Shiv Sena and that there is an “adrishya Shakti” (invisible power) in the country doing all this.
“Our documents were fine. The founder member and founder leader of this party is only Sharad Pawar…But now the atmosphere is something else right now. There is an ‘adrishya shakti’ in the country which is doing all this,” she added.
Another Sharad Pawar faction leader Jitendra Awhad said that Sharad Pawar is a phoenix and he will rise from the ashes. Asserting that Sharad Pawar faction already knew this outcome, Awhad said that the poll panel should be embarrassed.
“This was going to happen. We already knew this. Today he (Ajit Pawar) has choked Sharad Pawar politically. Only Ajit Pawar is behind this. The only one who should be embarrassed in this is the Election Commission,” he told reporters.
His remarks came shortly after the Election Commission decided that the faction led-by Ajit Pawar is entitled to use the party name ‘Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the symbol ‘clock’.
However, the poll panel has provided the Sharad Pawar-led faction with a one-time option to claim a name for its new political formation and provide three preferences to it. The concession is to be utilized by 3 pm on Wednesday.
In an order issued by the EC, it said, “The Commission holds that the faction led by the petitioner , Ajit Anantrao Pawar is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol ‘clock’ for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.”
However, the poll panel, while using its powers under Para 18 of the Symbols Order, has provided the Sharad Pawar-led faction, “a one-time option to claim a name to its new political formation and provide three preferences to the Commission”.