Sharad Pawar, Supreme Court and Ajit Pawar.
Sharad Pawar submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court ahead of the hearing of the electoral symbol dispute between the NCP and the NCP. In this affidavit, he has said that Ajit Pawar tried to create confusion in the minds of voters regarding the clock election symbol. An attempt was made to take unfair advantage of the goodwill associated with the electoral symbol of the clock. Sharad Pawar sought permission to produce six documents to prove the allegations.
Sharad Pawar founded NCP in 1999 with PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar. But last year the rebellion led by Ajit Pawar divided the party. After this, Ajit Pawar along with 40 MLAs joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde. Ajit was appointed deputy CM. The matter reached the Electoral Commission.
The Ajit group obtained the electoral symbol of the ‘clock’
The Election Commission declared Ajit Pawar’s camp as the “real” NCP and assigned it the party name and the electoral symbol of “clock”. Sharad Pawar’s camp challenged this in the Supreme Court. The court then allowed Sharad Pawar’s camp to use ‘Rashtriya Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar)’ as its name and the trumpet election symbol as its symbol for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The court allowed the Ajit Pawar faction to continue using the party name ‘NCP’ and the electoral symbol ‘clock’ for the elections. Sharad Pawar’s camp opposed this. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court. Sharad Pawar accused Ajit Pawar’s faction of violating court orders by using the name and symbol of the NCP.
Electoral symbol due to poor performance
Maha Vikas Aghadi suffered a crushing defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The Sharad Pawar faction won only 10 seats. Experts say that due to independent candidates with trumpet electoral symbol, the Sharad Pawar faction had to face defeat in at least nine seats. It is also said that the electoral symbol could be the cause of the party’s weak performance in many seats.
