Veteran leader and Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar, on Friday, appeared before the Election Commission as the poll body heard the two NCP factions to decide on which side has a rightful claim to the party's name and symbol.
The visuals of the 82-year-old leader going to the EC to personally present his claim on the 'real NCP' were clearly meant to convey the message that he was ready to fight with all his might for the party he had founded.
According to EC officials, the two sides—the other faction led by Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar who had recently in a shock move split the party to join the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra—presented their claims and documents to back their arguments. The EC will meet the two sides again on October 9.
In brief comments after the hearing, the senior advocate who represented Pawar senior before the EC, said, "We appeared today. The hearing went on for over two hours. The first part of the hearing went for an hour where we said that we are obliged to determine as a threshold issue whether there is a dispute or not."
Prior to the EC hearing, Pawar met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.
Pawar senior is learnt to be stressing on his stature as the founder of NCP and his claim that the organisational support and faith are on his side. Ajit Pawar is believed to have based his claim on the number of legislators that are with him. As many as 43 out of 53 MLAs of the NCP and six out of nine MLCs of the party are with Ajit Pawar.
Ajit Pawar had written to the EC on June 30 seeking recognition of the faction led by him as the real NCP under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, which is about the EC's power to recognise breakaway or rival factions of a political party.
In September, the EC stated that the rival claims to the NCP party name and symbol needed a substantive determination under Para 15 of the rules.
Pawar senior had held a show of strength in the national capital on Thursday, a day ahead of the EC hearing, and had chaired a meeting of the NCP's extended working committee. He has put up a brave front and declared that regardless of the party's election symbol, the clock, he has the support of the people.
