The Election Commission has approved a new name — the ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ — for NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s faction a day after it awarded the party’s original name and clock symbol to the rival NCP faction headed by Mr. Pawar’s nephew and Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
The poll panel’s decision came after Mr. Sharad Pawar’s faction was asked to submit three potential names for their political group by 4 p.m. on Wednesday for the purposes of the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls slated to be held on February 27.
Also Read | ECI rules Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP
If the NCP patriarch’s faction had failed to give any alternatives, then the ECI would have treated all its MLAs as Independents. Accordingly, the group had suggested three names in order of preference— Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadrao Pawar, and NCP-Sharad Pawar — to the ECI, and also sought a ‘banyan tree’ as its election symbol.
The Commission acceded to the first name preference as a one-time option for the purposes of the elections to six Rajya Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
Victory of democracy: BJP
Congratulating his ally Ajit Pawar after the ECI’s decision, BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said that the ECI’s result on the NCP split “was along expected lines” as had happened with the Samajwadi Party in 2017 and the Shiv Sena in 2022.
Also Read | Ajit Pawar faction files caveat in Supreme Court; seeks hearing if Sharad Pawar group challenges EC order
“The Election Commission’s decision is a victory of democracy and majority, especially in view of what happened after the 2019 Assembly elections in Maharashtra. At the time, the people’s mandate was rejected and democracy was murdered. Those who murdered democracy in 2019 have now realised what the real power of democracy is,” Mr. Fadnavis said in Nagpur, alluding to the Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena’s decision to snap ties with the BJP and join hands with the NCP and the Congress despite the erstwhile saffron partners winning the mandate together.
Mr. Fadnavis added that the ECI had taken into consideration not just the majority opinion in the NCP, but had also scrutinised the NCP’s party Constitution as well as other mandatory procedures such as internal elections being held at fixed intervals among other things.
‘ECI is BJP’s political wing’
Leaders of the Sharad Pawar faction, however, vehemently criticised the ECI’s decision, with MLA Rohit Pawar, Mr. Sharad Pawar’s grand-nephew, dubbing the Election Commission as “a political wing of the BJP.”
“There were not many expectations from the ECI which unconstitutionally awarded the party symbol and name to the breakaway NCP group. However, we are not worried at all as the founder of the party, Sharad Pawar, is with us. When Pawar saaheb formed the NCP in 1999, nobody knew the party’s symbol. So, our trust is in his deeds throughout his long career and in the faith the people of Maharashtra repose in Mr. Pawar. The BJP and the splinter NCP faction should be wary of a wounded tiger,” warned Mr. Rohit Pawar.
Banner wars
Earlier in the day, banner wars erupted in Mumbai between the rival NCP factions, with Sharad Pawar loyalists erecting banners printed with the legend, ‘Our party IS Sharad Pawar’. While the jubilant cadres of the Ajit Pawar group distributed sweets, the workers of the Sharad Pawar faction raised slogans against the ECI and staged protests against its decision in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, and other parts of Maharashtra.
In the Pawar clan’s bastion of Baramati in rural Pune, reactions to the ECI’s verdict were decidedly mixed, with some accusing Mr. Ajit Pawar of having destroyed the NCP while others lauded his leadership and boldness in decision-making.
The Sharad Pawar faction leader Jitendra Awhad lambasted the ECI’s decision as “laughable”, while remarking that it was “a conspiracy hatched to murder Sharad Pawar politically.”
‘Stabbed democracy in the back’
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut — an ally of Sharad Pawar’s group in the MVA coalition — alleged that the Election Commission had “stabbed democracy in the back” through its decision to recognise Ajit Pawar’s faction as the real NCP.
Speaking in New Delhi, Mr. Raut said that both the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been weakened because these were the only two parties that protected Marathi ‘asmita (identity)‘ and raised their voices against injustice being done to Maharashtra. He dared both Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar to form their own respective parties and face the people before the elections.
Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar said that his decision on the NCP split, which is expected next week, would be solely based on merit and have no relation with the ECI’s decision.
