NCP vs NCP: SC allows Sharad Pawar group to use 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharad Chandra Pawar' name till further orders

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the interim order by the Election Commission of India (ECI) that allowed veteran leader Sharad Pawar to use 'Nationalist Congress Party--Sharad Chandra Pawar' would continue till further orders. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Vishwanathan also allowed Sharad Pawar to approach the ECI for symbol allocation and said that it would be allotted within one week of filing the application.
It further issued notice to the Ajit Pawar faction and ECI on the plea of Sharad Pawar against the order of the poll panel officially recognising the Ajit Pawar faction as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The bench sought a response from them within two weeks and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
"Issue notice. Counter-affidavit to be filed in two weeks. The rejoinder is to be filed within one week. Post after three weeks. Meanwhile, the order passed on February 7 by the Election Commission of India granting the petitioner the right to use 'Nationalist Congress Party--Sharad Chandra Pawar' shall continue till further orders. The petitioner may approach the ECI for the allocation of a symbol, and such a symbol shall be allotted within one week of moving the application," the bench stated in its order. During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Sharad Pawar, argued that the court should allow the use of the party name, and they gave him the symbol.
He added, "In this case, in an interim order, they have said that the Ajit Pawar side is the real NCP, but for the Rajya Sabha elections, Sharad Pawar can use the name as a one-time measure, it should be allowed to continue... Maharashtra Assembly election is starting on Tuesday for Maratha Bill, although the main session, which is the budget session, starts on February 26." It was strange that the Sharad Pawar group had to obey the whip of the Ajit Pawar faction, Singhvi said.
"He (Sharad Pawar) is not asking for the name or the symbol of the undivided party. It is also absurd that tomorrow during the Assembly Session if Ajit Pawar issues a whip to Sharad Pawar, he will have to vote according to that," senior advocate told the bench. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Ajit Pawar faction, objected to the continuation of the ECI's interim arrangement in Sharad Pawar's party name. To this, Justice Viswanathan said, "At some stage, let the voter have some say. It will cause chaos. I don't want to draw an analogy, but if you are following the politics across the border, the whole thing happened because someone wanted the bat symbol and it was not given." Sharad Pawar moved the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of the ECI to officially recognise the Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP and the use of party symbols.
On February 6, the poll panel, while applying the test of majority in the legislative wing, ruled that Ajit Pawar's faction was the real NCP and permitted the faction to use the 'clock' symbol for the party. In its order, the Election Commission had noted that the total number of NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra State assembly stood at 81 and out of this, Ajit Pawar submitted affidavits of 57 MLAs in his support while Sharad Pawar had only 28 affidavits. Hence, the poll panel concluded that the Ajit Pawar faction enjoyed the majority support of the legislators and could lay claim to being the NCP. "The faction led by petitioner Ajit Anantrao Pawar is the Nationalist Congress Party and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol 'clock' for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment), Order 1968," the Commission had noted. Recently, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled that Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's party was the real NCP and turned down demands to disqualify either faction's lawmakers. The Supreme Court had earlier extended the time till February 15 for the Speaker to pass the final order on the plea of the Sharad Pawar faction seeking disqualification against rebel MLAs led by Ajit Pawar. In July 2023, a Sharad Pawar-led group filed disqualification petitions against eight MLAs for anti-party activities after Ajit Pawar split the party and joined the coalition government in Maharashtra as Deputy Chief Minister. Jayant Patil, a Sharad Pawar loyalist, later moved the apex court, seeking direction from the Speaker for time-bound disposal of the disqualification petitions in view of a similar direction passed by the top court in the case involving Shiv Sena party dispute between Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde group.
The apex court had then asked the Speaker to fast-track the adjudication of the disqualification petitions.