Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who last year led a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, received a shot in the arm on Tuesday as the Election Commission recognised his faction as the ‘real NCP’.
The poll panel dealt a big setback to Sharad Pawar, who had founded the NCP two decades ago, and asked the veteran leader's faction to claim a new name for its grouping ahead of the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in the state. In case the Senior Pawar's faction fails to do so by 4 pm on Wednesday, i.e February 7, 2024, all the MLAs claiming allegiance to the former Union minister will be treated as independents.
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How did EC settle the Pawar vs Pawar case?
In its 141-page order, the Election Commission said that it evaluated the applicability of three tests, i.e ‘Test of Aims and Objectives of the Party Constitution’, ‘Test of Party Constitution’ and ‘Test of Majority’ to decide the dispute between the nephew and the uncle.
In a detailed order, the EC said that neither of the two factions contended that they followed the aims and objectives of the party constitution and the other one was violating it.
On the ‘Test of Party Constitution’ aspect, the EC found that although both factions had no dispute on the party constitution, they were not following the same. As a result, this test also could not give any determinative result.
Lastly, the apex election body decided to rely on the ‘Test of Majority’ to decide the dispute. “With regard to the organisational wing, it was seen that the constitution of the ‘apex representative bodies' of NCP, i.e the working committee and the national committee were shrouded with doubt in view of the disputed organisational elections held in the year 2022,” the EC order stated.
Adding further, the EC stated,"In the absence of any coherent and substantial document brought on record which would have otherwise shown that these bodies were constituted as per the party constitution and thus undisputed, the commission proceeded to determine the present dispute case on the basis of test of majority in the legislative wing."
The poll panel stated that it examined the affidavits of support filed by both the factions and concluded that the group led by the petitioner (Ajit Pawar) enjoyed majority among the legislators.
“In view of the foresaid findings, this Commission holds that the faction led by the petitioner, Sh Ajit Anantrao Pawar, is the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol ‘clock’ for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968,” the EC order stated, paving way for Ajit faction to be regarded as the actual party.