Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 24: In a setback to the veteran Maharashtra leader and founder of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar, the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the rival NCP faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar to keep the party’s original “clock” symbol in the coming state Assembly elections but with stricter implementation of the disclaimer.
The Ajit Pawar faction was told to file an affidavit with the assurance that it would “meticulously” follow its earlier order and add disclaimers in election advertisements clarifying that the court was yet to take a final decision in the allotment of the clock symbol to the rival factions.
“If we feel that a deliberate attempt is being made to violate our order, we can initiate suo motu contempt proceedings,” said the bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan.
The earlier temporary order came when the Sharad Pawar faction had approached the top court, challenging the Election Commission’s decision to award of the party name and election symbol to the Ajit Pawar faction. It had asked that the “clock” symbol be frozen for the time being and both factions be given new symbol ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
This time, the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) had gone to court, complaining that the Ajit Pawar faction flouted its order and did not add any disclaimer in its election posters and banners, creating “large scale confusion” in the minds of voters during the Lok Sabha election. In delivering its order on Thursday, the bench issued a notice to Ajit Pawar’s faction, directing that it should not create “an embarrassing situation” for itself.
“Please file a fresh undertaking as well that you will not violate our directions present as well as till the end of elections. We expect both sides to comply our directions. Please don’t create an embarrassing (situation) for you,” Justice Kant said.
Sharad Pawar had founded the NCP with former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999 after their expulsion from the Congress. In July last year, Ajit Pawar – complaining about Sharad Pawar’s leadership — had walked away with a majority of MLAs and supported the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Eknath Shinde.
On February 15, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar – in response to complaints by Sharad Pawar’s faction — maintained that the faction led by Ajit Pawar was the real NCP. The anti-defection law cannot be used in this case since it was a matter of internal dissent and he had the numbers, he had said.
Shortly after, the Election Commission allotted the NCP symbol ‘clock’ to the Ajit Pawar group and allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to call itself the “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar” and use the “Man blowing Turha” as its symbol. The NCP had ‘clock’ as its election symbol before its split.
When the matter reached the top court, the judges had declared that the Election Commission’s decision stands till further orders. But the name and photographs of Sharad Pawar cannot be used by the Ajit Pawar faction for political gains, they had said.
The Bench also issued notice to the Deputy Chief Minister and others while seeking their replies on the plea. The matter has been listed for further hearing on November 6.
On March 19, the bench had allowed the Ajit group to keep both the NCP name and ‘clock’ symbol, though with a caveat that the deputy CM’s side will give public notices in leading English, Marathi, and Hindi dailies, informing the public that the allocation of the ‘clock’ symbol is subject to the outcome of the petition heard by the court.
The issue stems from the vertical split in the NCP in July last year, when the party witnessed a vertical split into two groups, with the uncle and the nephew leading one faction each.
The united NCP was a constituent of the three-party opposition alliance, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT); upon split, the Ajit camp joined the ruling coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena.
In February this year, the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognised the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the ‘real NCP’ and gave it the original ‘clock’ symbol. It is this recognition that Sharad Pawar has challenged in the Supreme Court.