Mumbai: The Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is unlikely to file its response to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) notice regarding party name and symbol by today, which was the deadline set by the Commission. Instead, the group has sought four more weeks to file the reply, sources said. This could be a strategic delay as the Pawar senior faction had written to the ECI and sought documents submitted by the Ajit's group. However, the apex election body didn't reply to the request.
Meanwhile, members, including key ministers of the Ajit camp, went into a huddle at his residence 'Devgiri' on Wednesday morning to deliberate on issues related to the party split. The meeting continued till the time of writing this news. The ECI had served notices to both the factions, including the one siding with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, to file their responses within three weeks. After receiving the notice, the Sharad Pawar faction had filed a one-page response, stating that it rejects the Ajit Pawar group’s claims on party name and symbol.
A detailed reply was to be filed later. On July 5, Ajit Pawar and his cohort shook hands with the ruling alliance, leading to a vertical split in the NCP. Subsequently, he went on to lay claim on party name and symbol and submitted relevant documents to the ECI. Notably, all the papers were dated June 30, but were received by the election body on the day when Ajit and company jumped boats.
They had also filed a petition claiming that the party symbol was filed under paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order of 1968, which grants the ECI exclusive authority to decide on issues regarding the merger or split of a party. This issue of the petition was also discussed at the recent meeting between the Pawar duo, sources said, adding that the discussions remained inconclusive.
