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SC directs Ajit Pawar to not use Sharad Pawar’s name or photo
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to give an undertaking that his faction will not use the name or picture of his uncle and founder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sharad Pawar
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to give an undertaking that his faction will not use the name or picture of his uncle and founder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Sharad Pawar, in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls in the wake of the split in the party.
The Election Commission (EC), by a decision earlier this year, allotted NCP’s name and symbol to the faction led by Ajit, recognising it as the “real NCP” based on the numerical strength held by it in the legislature. Sharad Pawar was allotted a different name and symbol for political canvassing.
“Why are you using his name or photo in your campaigns? If you are so sure of your popularity, go with your own photo and name. Don’t use his… Now that you are two separate identities, you go with your own identity to the voters... You can’t encash his popularity to get votes for yourself,” a bench of justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan told senior counsel Maninder Singh, who appeared for the Ajit Pawar faction. It also asked the Ajit Pawar faction to submit the undertaking in this regard by Saturday and fixed the matter for hearing next on March 19.
The court’s nudge came after senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Sharad Pawar, complained that despite the split, the Ajit Pawar faction has been using senior Pawar’s name and photo in their posters and hoardings. Besides putting some of such pictures on record, Singhvi referred to a purported statement by state minister and another leader of the Ajit Pawar camp, Chhagan Bhujbal, that their group would use Sharad Pawar’s photo to garner rural votes.
While Singh said that it would be difficult for his faction to stop workers or others from using Sharad Pawar’s photo or name, the bench was emphatic. “You must discipline your workers? Who else will do it? You must give us an undertaking that you won’t allow any of your workers to use his (Sharad’s) photograph.”
The court added: “We want an unconditional and unqualified undertaking from you that you will not use his name or photo and that there will be no overlap of your faction with his name and party.”
As Singh said that he would need a couple of days to come back with an appropriate mechanism of allaying the court’s concerns, the bench said that the Ajit Pawar faction would do well by also issuing a public notice in vernacular newspapers about its split with senior Pawar.
At this point, Singhvi pressed that it would be in fitness of things if the court directed the Ajit Pawar faction to use a party symbol other than NCP’s “clock” because this symbol is intertwined with Sharad Pawar and is likely to mislead and confuse voters, particularly the rural voters. EC has designated a “man blowing turha” (a traditional trumpet) as the official symbol for the NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar.
Agreeing with Singhvi, the bench suggested that the Ajit Pawar faction should consider getting allotted a different symbol from EC.
“It’s not that the Election Commission has attained finality. A challenge to it is still pending before us. Hypothetically, if we were to set aside the EC order while some polls are underway, it would be problematic for you too. It’s a suggestion from us. Why don’t you also go to the polls with a new symbol? Explore this idea. You go with a new symbol. It will be an uninterrupted hassle-free politics for you too,” it told Singh, who said he would convey the court’s suggestion.
Sharad Pawar had approached the Supreme Court last month, contesting the EC’s ruling to award the party name and symbol to the Ajit Pawar faction. The appeal has questioned the basis on which the poll panel arrived at its decision to rule in favour of Ajit Pawar, who joined hands with the Shiv Sena faction led by Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and later became a part of the state government as deputy chief minister.
In its hearing on February 19, the top court directed that the EC order allotting the name of ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ for the faction led by senior Pawar will continue till its further orders.
In its decision on February 6, EC had gone by test of legislative majority to rule in favour of the Ajit Pawar faction. Of the 81 MPs, MLAs and MLCs belonging to NCP, 57 affidavits were filed in support of the Ajit Pawar camp and only 28 in favour of the party patriarch, Sharad Pawar. Among these, six affidavits (five MLAs and one MP) had supported both factions. Even if these affidavits were to be excluded, the Ajit Pawar faction had the support of 51 legislators, the Commission had noted.
