Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing of his case, saying a “strange situation “ is arising by which he will be subject to the whip of his politically estranged nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
Mr. Sharad Pawar had earlier moved the Supreme Court against the decision of the Election Commission of India to recognise Mr. Ajit Pawar’s breakaway faction as the ‘real’ NCP. Mr. Ajit Pawar had joined the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition government.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, for the elder Pawar, said his client’s faction had still not been allotted a symbol.
“A strange situation is upon us. Sharad Pawar will be subject to the whip of Ajit Pawar when the Assembly starts next week,” Mr. Singhvi submitted.
He said the circumstances were “worse” than what the Uddhav Thackeray faction had faced within the Shiv Sena when Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde had rebelled with his camp of MLAs.
The Chief Justice assured that he would look into the plea for early listing.
Mr. Ajit Pawar has already filed a caveat through advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh in the Supreme Court, urging it to be heard before any order is passed in the special leave petition filed by the elder Pawar.
The Commission said that it had come to a conclusion in favour of Mr. Ajit Pawar after testing the aims and objectives of the party’s constitution, the test of the party’s constitution, and the test of majority, both legislative and organisational.
“The faction led by petitioner Ajit Anantrao Pawar is the Nationalist Congress Party and is entitled to use its name and reserved symbol ‘Clock’ for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment), Order 1968,” the Commission had noted.
