SC to hear tomorrow Sharad Pawar's plea against order on allotment of party and symbol to Ajit faction

Following more than 10 hearings spread over more than 6 months, the EC applied the test of legislative majority to let the Ajit Pawar faction exercise control over NCP and symbol, having noted disputed internal organisational elections.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea by Sharad Pawar against the Election Commission's decision to recognise the the faction led by his nephew, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ajit Pawar Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and K V Vishwanathan would consider the petition filed by senior Pawar on February 19.

On Friday, Pawar's counsel senior advocate A M Singhvi has asked a bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud to urgently consider the matter, in view of the Assembly session coming up in the week.

He said Pawar's group of MLAs are likely to face whip issued by the Ajit Pawar group.

The counsel also submitted that the Sharad Pawar group has not been allocated any symbol by the Election Commission.

In the petition, Sharad Pawar challenged the poll panel's decision of February 6, recognising the group by Ajit Pawar as the NCP and awarding it party symbol of 'Clock'.

The plea has been filed through advocate Abhishek Jebraj.

Ajit Pawar's group has already filed a caveat in the matter.

Following more than 10 hearings spread over more than 6 months, the EC applied the test of legislative majority to let the Ajit Pawar faction exercise control over NCP name and symbol, having noted disputed internal organisational elections.

The poll panel also used the “test of aims and objectives of the party constitution”, the “test of the party constitution” to come to its conclusion.

Sharad Pawar is the uncle of Ajit Pawar and is the founder of the NCP.

Ajit Pawar and eight other legislators of the NCP joined Maharashtra’s ruling coalition of Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and BJP in July, 2023.

On February 15, 2024, in an another setback to Sharad Pawar group, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar ruled that Ajit Pawar's group was the real NCP. The Speaker had declared that the events that unfolded between June 30 and July 2, 2023 were clearly in the nature of intra-party dissent within the NCP and the members of the party stood divided between two leaders. He had rejected the disqualification petitions against each other's group.