NEW DELHI, Feb 7: The Election Commission on Wednesday allotted ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as the party name for the group led by the veteran leader Sharad Pawar who had founded the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in 1999. But is yet to allot an election symbol to the “new” party.
The order by the poll authority came a day after it gave the Nationalist Congress Party name and the “clock” election symbol to the group led by his nephew Ajit Pawar, who had walked away with a majority NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly in July last year and joined the BJP-Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) government in the state.
The Commission had asked the Sharad Pawar group to suggest three names of which one could be allotted in view of the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Accordingly, the Sharad Pawar group has suggested the names — Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party — Sharadrao Pawar and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar — to the Commission.
The faction had also sought ‘banyan tree’ as the election symbol for itself. The Commission conveyed to Sharad Pawar that it has “acceded to your first preference, i.e. ‘Nationalist Congress Party — Sharadchandra Pawar’ as the name of your group/faction as a onetime option for the purposes of forthcoming election to 6 seats in the Rajya Sabha in Maharashtra…”
The Election Commission said it had accepted “the name of your group/faction as a onetime option for the purposes of the forthcoming election to six seats in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.”
(Manas Dasgupta)