Maharashtra leader Sharad Pawar on Saturday spoke on the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to recognize his nephew Ajit Pawar's faction as the official Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and said that such a thing has never happened before. The ECI made a decision in favor of Ajit Pawar's faction on the basis of the “Test of Majority” and said that the younger Pawar had the support of the majority of NCP legislators across the country.
“EC snatched party from hands of those who founded and built it and gave it to others; such a thing never happened before,” Sharad Pawar said as per news agency PTI.
The remarks came days after the Election Commission recognized Ajit Pawar's faction as the real NCP and allotted a new name to Sharad Pawar's faction of NCP- 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar.' The quick allotment of the new name to the Sharad Pawar faction of NCP came in view of the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra.
The leaders of the Sharad Pawar faction have openly expressed their displeasure with the decision of ECI and called it ‘murder of democracy.’
"...Our documents were fine. The founder member and founder leader of this party is only Sharad Pawar...But 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...," Sharad Pawar's daughter and Baramati MP Supriya Sule said.
"...I think what happened with Shiv Sena is what is happening with us today. So, this is not a new order. Just the names have been changed but the content is the same..." the Lok Sabha MP added.
The decision of the Election Commission set the stage for the beginning of another legal battle in Maharashtra where two factions of a political party are fighting to claim its identity. Earlier, Shiv Sena went through the same legal tussle as Eknath Shinde decided to break the party and allied with the BJP to form a new government in Maharashtra.
Sharad Pawar has cleared that his faction will challenge the ECI's decision in court while the faction led by Ajit Pawar filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, anticipating a potential appeal from the leaders of Sharad Pawar's faction.
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