Assembly elections: NCP to independently contest 40 to 45 seats in Karnataka
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has accepted the NCP’s poll symbol – a clock – for the electoral battle in the neighbouring state.
Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) would field candidates in at least 40 to 45 out of the 224 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, scheduled to be held on May 10, party chief Sharad Pawar announced after chairing a meeting on Saturday. “We will fight the polls independently,” R Hari, NCP’s Karnataka president, said after the meeting at Ballard Estate.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has accepted the NCP’s poll symbol – a clock – for the electoral battle in the neighbouring state.
“We will contest the elections from 40 to 45 seats and have prepared a strategy. A sitting MLA from the ruling BJP has already joined the party and another MLA is in touch with us. A former mayor of Bengaluru is also expected to join the party soon,” R Hari said.
The Karnataka unit of the NCP is planning to hold five to six rallies that will be addressed by Pawar, one of the most popular leaders in the Marathi-speaking areas along the Maharashtra border.
Last week, Pawar in Nashik had said that the party would contest six to seven seats in the bordering areas as they wanted to ensure the unity of Marathi-speaking people in Karnataka. The change in the stand may have come after his party lost its national status recently.
The ECI on April 10 withdrew the ‘national party’ tag of the NCP for its failure to meet the eligibility criteria required to keep the same. It has also taken away ‘state party’ status from NCP in three states — Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. The party had then declared to contest all the upcoming state elections to get its national status restored.
{{/usCountry}}The ECI on April 10 withdrew the ‘national party’ tag of the NCP for its failure to meet the eligibility criteria required to keep the same. It has also taken away ‘state party’ status from NCP in three states — Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. The party had then declared to contest all the upcoming state elections to get its national status restored.
{{/usCountry}}Hari said that they have got back the election symbol that was frozen following the ECI decision for the Karnataka elections and also directed the election electoral officer (Karnataka) to allot them their symbol.
{{/usCountry}}Hari said that they have got back the election symbol that was frozen following the ECI decision for the Karnataka elections and also directed the election electoral officer (Karnataka) to allot them their symbol.
{{/usCountry}}“The commission has decided to extend the concession sought by the party under Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Accordingly, the candidates set up by the NCP at the current General Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka, 2023, shall be allotted the symbol ‘Clock’, states the order issued by Jaydeb Lahiri, secretary, ECI on April 12.
{{/usCountry}}“The commission has decided to extend the concession sought by the party under Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. Accordingly, the candidates set up by the NCP at the current General Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka, 2023, shall be allotted the symbol ‘Clock’, states the order issued by Jaydeb Lahiri, secretary, ECI on April 12.
{{/usCountry}}It is unclear if NCP would create difficulty for the Congress which is confident of winning the Karnataka elections. On Thursday, Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi as part of Congress’ outreach to opposition parties and vowed that they are committed to opposition unity against BJP-led governments across the country.
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