On Tuesday (6th February), the Election Commission of India ended the intra-party dispute within the Nationalist Congress Party. The EC ruled in favour of the faction led by Ajit Pawar. His faction will now be the original/real NCP and can use the party symbol ‘clock’. The decision comes after more than 10 hearings of distinguished legal teams that were held in over 6 months.
The decision comes in line with the laid-out tests of maintainability of such a petition. This includes tests of aims and objectives of the party constitution, test of the party constitution, and tests of majority both organisational and Legislative. The test of majority in the legislative wing found favour in this circumstance of the case, where both groups are working outside the party constitution and the organisational elections. Thus, the occupants of the post were primarily assessed to be appointed by self-nominated members of the electoral college and against the internal party democracy, news agency ANI reported.
As per reports, there were serious inconsistencies in terms of timelines in the claim of the Sharad Pawar group and in their claim of having the support of the organisational majority. This resulted in the unreliability of their claim.
Meanwhile, taking into account the significant timeline of the elections to the 6 seats of Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, the Sharad Pawar faction has been given a special concession to comply with Rule 39AA of Conduct of Elections Rules 1961, which allows the authorised agents of political parties to verify as to whom an elector, who is a member of a political party has cast his vote.
The Election Commission thus using its powers has provided the Sharad Pawar faction, a one-time option to claim a name for its new political formation and provide three preferences to the Commission. The concession is to be utilised by 3 pm on 7 Feb, 2024.