What comes next for Sharad Pawar after losing NCP’s name, symbol to Ajit Pawar?

Sharad Pawar suffered a significant setback on Tuesday (6 February) after the Election Fee of India (ECI) recognised Ajit Pawar-led faction as the actual Nationalist Congress Get together (NCP). The ballot physique awarded the celebration identify and its ‘clock’ image to the camp led by senior Pawar’s nephew, Ajit.

The EC additionally gave a one-time concession to the Sharad Pawar-led faction to pick out a brand new identify and image for the celebration for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections for six seats in Maharashtra by 4 pm on Wednesday.

This comes practically a 12 months after the EC recognised Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena because the official Shiv Sena, in a blow to Uddhav Thackeray.

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Why did the EC award the NCP identify and image to the Ajit Pawar camp? What have been the reactions to the event? What’s going to Sharad Pawar do now? Let’s take a better look.

What did the Election Fee say?

The EC stated in its order on Tuesday that it based mostly its choice on the “check of legislative majority” within the Ajit Pawar faction. Final July, the junior Pawar, who’s at present the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, revolted towards his uncle and break up the NCP into two teams.

In line with the ECI order, out of the whole 81 MPs, MLAs, and MLCs of the NCP, 57 had backed Ajit Pawar and 28 had supported his uncle, reported Indian Categorical. Nonetheless, 5 MLAs and one Lok Sabha MP gave affidavits supporting each factions. Even after excluding these six, the Ajit Pawar camp had the bulk, the order acknowledged.

“Ajit Pawar faction loved majority help of legislators. (The) fee holds that Ajit Pawar is the Nationalist Congress Get together and is entitled to make use of its identify and reserved image of ‘clock’,” ThePrint quoted the ECI order as saying.

Reactions to the ECI order

The Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP termed the ECI order a “homicide of democracy”.

“Everyone knows that NCP was fashioned by Sharad Pawar and he was the president of the celebration. However this fashion the choice taken, due to stress, is a homicide of democracy. That is unlucky,” Anil Deshmukh, an MLA of the Sharad Pawar camp, informed the media.

NCP MP and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule stated the election physique’s ruling was the “victory of the invisible energy”. “This can be a big conspiracy towards Maharashtra and Marathi individuals. Nonetheless, I’m not in any respect stunned by this choice,” PTI quoted her as saying.

Ajit Pawar camp and its ruling coalition welcomed the EC order. The junior Pawar stated he accepts the choice “with humility”. “In a democracy, precedence is given to the bulk which is why the ballot fee has allotted the celebration identify and image to us”.

Senior NCP chief Praful Patel stated the ECI ruling confirmed that almost all of NCP employees and elected representatives are with Ajit Pawar.

“We welcome the ruling of the EC…We dwell in a democracy and any choice will be challenged. Perhaps makes an attempt will likely be made to problem this on the Supreme Court docket or excessive court docket… All I want to say is that the choice we made was appropriate and thru EC, our choice has been confirmed appropriate,” Patel, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar faction, reportedly stated.

Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis additionally welcomed the ballot physique’s choice. “The Election Fee has given the decision based mostly on benefit and majority. The bulk has an necessary function in democracy. The ECI took an analogous choice throughout our case as effectively,” Shinde stated, as per NDTV.

Fadnavis congratulated Ajit Pawar in a put up on X.

What subsequent for Sharad Pawar?

The Sharad Pawar camp has stated it can method the Supreme Court docket towards the ECI ruling. Sule stated the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena confronted the identical state of affairs. “I believe what occurred with Shiv Sena is occurring to us at present. So, this isn’t a brand new order. Simply the names have been modified, the content material is identical. We are going to combat. We will certainly go to the Supreme Court docket,” she was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The Baramati MP stated Sharad Pawar has the help of the organisation, and, as per the Supreme Court docket verdict, solely the organisation decides who the celebration belongs to, reported Indian Categorical.

“Sharad Pawar raised this celebration from zero on the age of 60, and he can do it once more,” she stated.

Jayant Patil, Maharashtra president of the Sharad Pawar group, stated the Election Fee’s ruling was opposite to a Supreme Court docket order in a associated situation. “The Supreme Court docket (previously) stated that regardless that MLAs shift their loyalty, the celebration doesn’t comply with them. Regardless of this, the ECI has given a choice based mostly on the elected representatives and their inclination,” he stated, as per PTI.

Whereas the Supreme Court docket battle might be long-drawn, the Sharad Pawar faction’s first process at hand is to declare a brand new identify and image for the celebration.

The ECI has informed the senior Pawar-led group to say a reputation and supply three selections to the physique. In the event that they fail to file an software by 4 pm on 7 February, their MLAs will likely be thought-about independents, reported ThePrint.

As per NDTV sources, the veteran chief is more likely to finalise a reputation for the celebration with the phrase “nationalist” in it. “Spectacles”, “rising solar” and “sunflower” are a number of the choices for the celebration’s new image. The “rising solar”, “wheel”, and “tractor” had been another choices being thought-about, Indian Categorical reported.

Sule stated they may take a choice within the matter on Wednesday.

The Sharad Pawar camp additionally faces the problem of constructing individuals, particularly in rural areas, conscious of its new identify and image with simply months left for Lok Sabha elections and state Meeting polls.

Whereas Sharad Pawar stays a key a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, his bargaining energy throughout seat-sharing talks might take a success after the ECI ruling, in keeping with NDTV. His camp is predicted to proceed to ally with the Congress and Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra.

In the meantime, the judgement within the disqualification pleas towards MLAs of each NCP factions is earlier than Maharashtra Meeting Speaker Rahul Narwekar who’s but to announce his verdict. The listening to within the case culminated on 31 January, whereas the ruling is predicted by 15 February.

With inputs from companies