Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday welcomed the Election Commission’s decision to recognise his faction as the ‘real’ Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
“(The) Election Commission has ruled in our favour after listening to the arguments of our lawyers. We welcome this humbly,” Ajit Pawar said on X after the verdict.
The Sharad Pawar camp, however, termed the Election Commission’s decision to declare Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP as a “murder of democracy”, according to PTI.
NCP MP Supriya Sule said that Sharad Pawar will rebuild the party and asserted that workers of the NCP are still with him. She also said that her faction will approach the Supreme Court next.
“…Our documents were fine. Founder member and founder leader of this party is only Sharad Pawar…But now the atmosphere is something else right now. There is an ‘adrishya shakti’ in the country which is doing all this. We will fight…We will definitely go to Supreme Court…” Sule told reporters.
The Election Commission resolved the NCP dispute in favour of Ajit Pawar’s faction after over 10 hearings in 6 months.
On July 2, Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government as deputy chief minister along with eight other ministers. The move caused a split in the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.
Here’s how the political fraternity reacted to EC’s decision:
Uddhav camp ‘not surprised’
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the Election Commission’s decision in favour of the faction led by Ajit Pawar is not surprising.
“I am not surprised at all. A man who was charged of corruption of worth ₹70,000 Crores…today stands shoulder to shoulder with the BJP…Ajit Pawar happens to be the Deputy CM of Maharashtra…It goes against the spirit of Schedule 10 of the Constitution…” Chaturvedi told ANI.
She also accused the BJP-led central government of silencing voices which speak for the people of the country.
“It is sponsored, planned and executed by the Central Government to try and silence those voices which speak for the people of this country, which speak strongly against the growing dictatorial tendencies of the Government,” she told the news agency.
Sharad Pawar camp alleges ‘decision under pressure’
Former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, who belongs to Sharad Pawar’s faction, alleged that the Election Commission has taken the decision under pressure.
“Today the Election Commission has given Sharad Pawar’s party’s name and symbol to Ajit Pawar. A similar decision was taken in the case of Shiv Sena,” Deshmukh was quoted as saying by ANI.
He added: “NCP was founded by Sharad Pawar. He had been the president of the party for years. The Election Commission’s decision under pressure is the murder of democracy. This is unfortunate.”
Praful Patel welcomes EC ruling
NCP’s working president Praful Patel welcomed the decision of the Election Commission and said that it it proves that the decision taken by AJit Power was correct.
“…We welcome the ruling of the Election Commission…We live in a democracy and any decision can be challenged. Maybe attempts will be made to challenge this at the Supreme Court or High Court…All I would like to say is that the decision we made was correct and through EC, our decision has been proven correct,” he told ANI.
