Maharashtra: 'Ajit Pawar's group' has no legal ground to be the NCP, Sharad Pawar faction tells Election Commission

Sharad Pawar’s side told the ECI that Ajit Pawar unilaterally appointed himself the NCP president with the help of legislators’ signatures, in violation of its constitution. File pic

The Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Sharad Pawar faction has told the Election Commission of India (ECI) that the claims made by the Ajit Pawar faction are baseless and the rebel leader and his ilk do not hold any legal ground to call themselves a legitimate party headed by a person other than its founder and national president, Sharad.

In its response to Ajit's claim that his is the legitimate party that he heads as the national president, Sharad's faction has reminded the ECI of disqualification pleas it had filed against 40 MLAs, including ministers, who sided with the deputy chief minister. It said the affidavits filed by those facing disqualification cannot hold any ground and that the rebels are liable for losing their law making rights. Ajit's faction had filed its plea coinciding with their switch in July. "The plea was filed to pre-emptively avoid inevitable disqualification (of the rebel leaders)", the response said.

Sharad's group has reiterated that the NCP has not split, because some people have shifted to the government's side, and hence no person or group of persons can stake a claim to the party's name and election symbol.

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The octogenarian's side has told the ECI that Ajit's appointment as the national president violated the party's constitution, which does not allow legislators to appoint a party boss. It stated further that Ajit has unilaterally sought to appoint himself as the boss on the basis of signatures of some legislators.

The argument has countered the Ajit camp's move of holding a national convention at which the ‘president' was elected without having a returning officer in place.
In a similar case earlier, the Shiv Sena factions had fought before the ECI, which had ruled in favour of the Eknath Shinde group, saying that it had more elected public representatives. The name and election symbol was also allotted to the chief minister's group.