Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP, rules poll body

The Election Commission of India on Friday ruled that the faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar will inherit the original party's name and its iconic clock poll symbol, dealing a blow to party patriarch Sharad Pawar just months ahead of general elections.

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NEW DELHI: The order, which came on the back of Ajit Pawar's superior numbers among party legislators, bolsters the three-party alliance ruling Maharashtra and comes roughly a year after a similar ECI decision found that the faction of the Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde was the real party.

It also caps a months-long feud between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit, who joined hands with the BJP and Shinde in a surprise move in 2023.

"This commission holds that the faction led by the petitioner, 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 140-page order said.

The decision - which came weeks before Rajya Sabha polls for six seats in Maharashtra and ahead of the general elections scheduled this summer - was welcomed by Ajit Pawar.

"We humbly accept the decision given by the Election Commission after listening to the side presented by our lawyers," Ajit Pawar said in a tweet posted by his faction's official X handle @mahancpspeaks.

Supriya Sule said the Sharad Pawar faction will go to the Supreme Court against the order.

"What was done with Shiv Sena earlier is happening with us now. It is not a new order. Only the name has changed but the content is the same... We are going to the Supreme Court in the next 48 hours," she said.

ECI also gave Sharad Pawar time until Wednesday evening to continued on give three preferences for party name and poll symbol so that its leaders could contest in the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls for the six seats from Maharashtra. "ECI has given us an option to give them three names and three symbols by tomorrow evening so we will of course do that," Sule said.