Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar.
In the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the National Congress Party (NCP) of Ajit Pawar’s group and Sharad Pawar’s National Congress Party (NCP) A dispute broke out over election symbols. Sharad Pawar’s party has objected to the use of a clock as an election symbol by the Ajit Pawar-led National Congress Party. He accused Ajit Group of violating court orders. Sharad Pawar filed a petition in the Supreme Court and his petition will be heard today (Thursday).
In an interim application, a lawyer for the Sharad Pawar-led faction said it has sought directions to the Ajit Pawar-led faction not to use the clock symbol in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. While hearing the matter on Tuesday (October 22), the court said that the previous order had been passed with the consent of both parties.
The allegations against the Ajit Group
Lawyers for the Sharad faction later claimed that Ajit Pawar failed to comply with the order. He also revealed that the application was submitted in September. Ajit Pawar’s faction has been directed to file a reply and the matter will come to market on October 1.
read this too
The lawyer said the matter was urgent as the last date to submit nominations for the parliamentary elections was October 29. In response, lawyers for the Ajit Pawar-led faction argued that some of their candidates had already filed nominations for the elections, while another party had filed an application for confiscation of the clock symbol. Taking into account the arguments from both sides, the judge said the matter would be heard on October 24.
This is the whole battle process
After the party split, Sharatchandra Pawar’s faction lost the battle before the Election Commission, which recognized Ajit Pawar as the main leader of the NCP and the breakaway faction was declared as Sharatchandra Pawar ). In February 2024, Sharad Pawar filed a petition challenging the Election Commission’s decision, which he said was wrong. Apart from this, the veteran leader also questioned the decision to allow Ajit Pawar to use the NCP’s election symbol ‘clock’. In several applications to the Supreme Court, it has been argued that the use of clocks confuses voters.
In March this year, the Supreme Court directed NCP Sharat Chandra Pawar to use the “trumpet blower” symbol. It will not be allocated to any other political party or to any independent candidate.
Apart from this, the court directed Ajit Pawar’s party to publish notices in Marathi, Hindi and English newspapers informing them that allocation of clock election symbols is pending before the court. It has also been directed to include this announcement in any advertisement, audio or video clip released by NCP (Ajit Pawar). However, after the Lok Sabha elections, the Sharad Pawar-led faction argued in court that the permission to use the clock election symbol should be revoked.
During the hearing on October 22, counsel appearing for Sharad Pawar’s faction argued that they lost the recent Lok Sabha elections due to chaos. Many of our votes went to Ajit’s group due to confusion over election symbols.