In a big decision, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday delivered his verdict on the disqualification petitions filed by the two NCP factions against each other and announced that “Ajit Pawar’s faction is the real NCP”. The Speaker’s decision was based on the factor of legislative majority.
Dismissing the petitions to disqualify the MLAs belonging to Ajit Pawar’s camp, the Maharashtra Speaker said Ajit’s faction substantially outnumbered the Sharad Pawar faction in the state legislature.
“I hold that the Ajit Pawar faction enjoys an overwhelming majority within the NCP,” Narwekar announced.
Further highlighting the provision of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution that deals with the disqualification of legislators on grounds of defection, the Speaker said that the provision should not be used to silence the members of the Opposition. “That would be a complete abuse of the law and contrary to the contention of the law,” he added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently allotted the party name ‘NCP’ and poll symbol ‘clock’ to the Ajit Pawar-led group. It has also allotted ‘Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar’ as the party name for the group led by Sharad Pawar.
Sharad Pawar Faction Moves SC
The Sharad Pawar faction approached the Supreme Court on February 13 challenging the Election Commission’s decision to allocate the party name and symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar. Calling EC’s move ‘unconstitutional’, Pawar in his plea said that having a majority is not the only test under the Symbols Act.
On Sunday, Pawar called the Election Commission’s decision “surprising” and said that the poll body has “snatched” the party from the hands of its founders and gave it to others. He also said the programme and ideology are important for the people while a symbol is useful for a limited period.
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