Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the counsel for Sharad Pawar's faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Election Commission, provided reporters with a briefing on Monday following another hearing on the ownership of the party symbol post the split led by Ajit Pawar.
Affidavits of dead people, Zomato boys by opposite group: Singhvi
Continuing his attack against the rival Ajit Pawar faction for allegedly providing fraudulent affidavits to the EC, Singhvi said, "We have had a continuation of hearing. I argued before the EC for almost one and a half hour today. We have a given a very small sample of just under 9,000 affidavits, divided into 24 purple-coloured fraud categories. In my life, I have not seen so many diverse kinds of frauds. A man is dead, his affidavit is given. A person is a Zomato supplier, his affidavit is given. Even affidavit of LIC agent is given. They have nothing to do with NCP. A person who doesn't even live in the district, his affidavit is given. Affidavits of minors are given. This is a complete, shameless fraud."
Nothing against Sharad Pawar in affidavits: Singhvi
Singhvi further emphasised that none of the affidavits from the Ajit Pawar faction contains any statements against Sharad Pawar.
"The second aspect is that not one of the affidavits submitted by the opposite side says a word against Sharad Pawar. Many of them say that we recognise Ajit Pawar as a leader, but not one affidavit mentiones that in comparison to whom? In comparison to Sharad PAwar? Are you supporting Ajit Pawar and not Sharad Pawar, not one affidavit says so," Singhvi said.
Singhvi also demanded a criminal action against the alleged fraud by AJit Pawar group in submitting the affidavits.
Dismiss the 'frivolous' petition: Singhvi
"Thirdly, we have shown that the EC has jurisdiction and should file criminal complaint for such open forgery and fraud, which is their power under IPC. And we have requested them to consider filing that," he said.
Singhvi emphatically stated that the petition filed by the Ajit Pawar group to assert ownership of the NCP symbol is "non-maintainable, false, and frivolous" and urged for its dismissal with costs.
Watch what Singhvi said:
Singhvi cites senior NCP leader's example
Singhvi also cited example of an affidavit being filed in the name senior NCP leader Pratap Chaudhary supporting Ajit Pawar even when Chaudhary was not aware of it.
"On October 26, an affidavit was submitted to the Election Commission stating that Pratap Chaudhari supports the Ajit Pawar group. However, Pratap Chaudhari himself is present here. When he became aware of this, he was taken aback, as he is a staunch supporter of Sharad Pawar. This led to his appearance before the Election Commission today, where he submitted a genuine affidavit.
Singhvi stressed that Chaudhary is a founding member of the NCP along with Sharad Pawar and his fake signatures were signed by the opposite group to claim his support.
