Pawar appointment as party chief unconstitutional: Ajit faction to EC

In the hearing on Monday, the Ajit Pawar faction, which was represented by senior counsel Manindar Singh, asserted that their claim over the name and the symbol of the party was stronger as they have a majority in the lower house and because the faction has submitted more affidavits to establish support from workers

Mumbai: On the second day of the hearing in the Election Commission of India on the split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Ajit Pawar faction contended that the appointment of Sharad Pawar and other officer bearers were not according to the party constitution and the national convention. The Ajit camp also contended that Sharad Pawar ran the party “like a family”, in the way he wanted, and disobeyed the constitution of the party.

New Delhi: NCP chief Sharad Pawar comes out of the Election Commission office after the commission heard on the plea of both factions over claims on the party's name and symbol, in New Delhi, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (PTI Photo/Manvender Vashist Lav)(PTI10_06_2023_000454A) (PTI)

In the hearing on Monday, the Ajit Pawar faction, which was represented by senior counsel Manindar Singh, asserted that their claim over the name and the symbol of the party was stronger as they have a majority in the lower house and because the faction has submitted more affidavits to establish support from workers. According to them, the appointment of Ajit Pawar as the chief of the party was in accordance with the constitution of the party.

The Ajit Pawar faction challenged the appointment of Sharad Pawar as the party chief in 2022, saying it was illegal and not according to the party’s constitution. “The person who was appointed - violating the constitution and the national convention of the party - was making the appointments of other officer bearers. The democratic principles were not followed while electing the office bearers. We have submitted over 1.62 lakh affidavits to establish the support by the party workers, while the opponent could have submitted less than 40,000 affidavits,” the advocate representing Ajit Pawar said during the hearing.

Opposing the Sharad Pawar faction’s claim during the first hearing on Friday that there was no split in the party, the Ajit faction said there was a vertical split in the party and urged the ECI to take a call on which faction deserved the party name and symbol.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the Sharad Pawar faction, reiterated the claim that many affidavits submitted by Ajit faction were forged, faked and that of deceased persons – a claim that was refuted by the Ajit faction. “The petitioner (Ajit faction) tried to push for the hearing at a supersonic speed by pressing for the hearing to be kept in the next few days, but the poll panel did not budge under their pressure. In the little time that we got to screen the affidavits submitted by Ajit faction, we came across at least 9,000 affidavits that have been forged and are erroneous,” he said after the hearing. The next hearing has been scheduled for November 9.

The Sharad Pawar camp also asked the ECI should verify the claim by the Ajit camp that they have a majority of support from party workers.

Ajit Pawar faction’s state unit chief Sunil Tatkare said, “We have been reiterating our stand during the hearing in the ECI. The arguments are in accordance with the judgements given by the ECI from time to time.” He said that they never denied that Sharad Pawar was the founder president of the party, but is pressing on the fact that it is now led by Ajit Pawar as its national president.

According to a minister from NCP’s Ajit Pawar faction, they have 42 MLAs from their side while Sharad Pawar has the support of ten MLAs. “Nawab Malik has not cleared his stand on which side he stands yet. In the affidavit submitted by us in ECI, we have attached the affidavits and signatures by these 42 MLAs,” he said.

Speaker serves notice to two Senas

State assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar has served notices to the chiefs of both the factions of Shiv Sena directing them to submit their claims over the party. The notices served to Uddhav Thackeray and chief minister Eknath Shinde mandate the leaders to submit the documents in eight days, corroborating their claims on the party post the vertical split in June 2022. The speaker is scheduled to hold the next hearing in the petition over disqualification of the MLAs on October 13.