NCP was all about Sharad Pawar (left) and his personal charisma until his nephew Ajit Pawar staged a rebellion.
Credit: PTI Photos
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear on October 24 a plea filed by veteran leader Sharad Pawar-led group raising the issue over the use of "clock" symbol by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The application was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan.
The counsel appearing for the Sharad Pawar faction informed the bench that the matter was supposed to be listed today (October 22) but hadn't found a mention in the causelist.
He argued the plea seeks that both factions be directed not to use the "clock" symbol.
"On this issue, we had earlier passed some detailed order... It was kind of a consent order," the bench observed.
The Sharad Pawar faction's lawyer claimed the top court's order was not being complied with by the Ajit Pawar-led group.
The counsel said there was urgency in the matter as the last date of filing nominations for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections was October 29.
The counsel representing the Ajit Pawar-led faction said some of their candidates have already filed their nominations for the assembly polls.
He said the application had been filed by the other side to seize the "clock" symbol.
The bench said it would hear the matter on October 24.
Sharad Pawar has moved the apex court against the February 6 order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognising Ajit Pawar-led group as the real NCP.
The ECI had allotted the NCP's "clock" symbol to the group led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar, had the "clock" as its election symbol before its split.
On March 19, the top court allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to use "Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar" as its name along with the symbol of a man blowing "turha" ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the country.
It had passed the order on a plea by the Sharad Pawar group seeking to restrain the Ajit Pawar faction from using the "clock" symbol for the polls, as allotted by the ECI, on the ground that it was disrupting the level playing field.
The top court had observed the name and photographs of Sharad Pawar could not be used by the Ajit Pawar faction for political gains.
On February 19, the top court directed the ECI order allotting "Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar" as the party name for the Sharad Pawar faction to continue till further orders.
Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar had on February 15 held the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar to be the real NCP and said the anti-defection provisions in the Constitution cannot be used to stifle internal dissent.
Sharad Pawar had founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 after their expulsion from the Congress.
Ajit Pawar had walked away with a majority of the NCP MLAs in July, 2023, and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde.
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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