EC’s ruling against SC order, will challenge it in apex court: Sharad Pawar-led NCP group—

MUMBAI —The Sharad Pawar-led group of the NCP on Wednesday said it will approach the Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s order recognising the rival Ajit Pawar faction as the “real” party and allotting it the “clock” election symbol.

Clyde Crasto, a spokesperson of the ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’, the name allotted by the EC for the group led by the former Union minister, said the poll panel’s order goes against a Supreme Court directive which gives importance to a political party over its legislative wing in case of a dispute.

“We will obviously go to the Supreme Court. There is a Supreme Court directive which says that legislative party cannot be chosen over the political party. So if the decision has gone against the Supreme Court’s verdict then we will go approach to the Supreme Court because we have faith in it,” Crasto said.

On Tuesday, the EC gave the Nationalist Congress Party name and the “clock” election symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar, who had walked away with a majority NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly in July last year and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government.

The Ajit Pawar faction is the ‘real’ Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the EC had said in its ruling that came as a major setback to party founder Sharad Pawar.

Ajit Pawar is now a deputy chief minister.

On Wednesday, the poll authority allotted ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as the party name for the group led by Sharad Pawar.