EC grants three more weeks to Sharad Pawar, Ajit factions for replies to notice on NCP’s name and official symbol
The Election Commission on Wednesday granted three more weeks to the Nationalist Congress Party factions to respond to their notice related to the party’s name and official symbol.
The Sharad Pawar faction had sought four weeks in a letter to the poll panel. Both the factions will need to respond to the notice on September 8.
On July 27, the poll panel had issued notices to both Ajit Pawar and Sharad Pawar factions and asked for their replies by August 17, i.e tomorrow. The poll panel had also received affidavits from 40 MPs, MLAs and MLCs along with a resolution by rebel faction members that they elected Ajit Pawar as the NCP chief.
The faction led by Sharad Pawar had decided not to move the EC until the poll panel took cognisance of the claims by rebel group. On July 3, the Pawar faction had moved disqualification motion against nine NCP MLAs including Ajit Pawar who took oath as the deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis coalition government.
Three days later, the Pawar faction expelled all the nine MLAs, along with working president Praful Patel and general secretary Sunil Tatkare. The decision was taken in the working committee of the party held in Delhi.
In a separate development, Pawar held a closed door meeting with his nephew Ajit Pawar in Pune, fuelling speculation about the future moves of the duo. The three-hour long meeting took place at an industrialist’s house.
When asked about the meeting, Pawar said the huddle was not a secret one.”What is wrong with meeting my nephew? If a senior person in a family desires to meet another family member, there should not be any issue with that”, he said. The NCP chief also declared he will never align with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“As the national president of the NCP, I am making it clear that my party (NCP) will not go with the BJP. Any association with the Bharatiya Janata Party does not fit in NCP’s political policy”, he added.