Sharad Pawar Deems EC, Speaker Decisions "Unfair", Says Will Move Supreme Court Over NCP Name And Symbol

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar has called "unfair" the recent verdicts on the party split by the Election Commission and Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar.

Pawar also said that his faction will approach the Supreme Court in a bid to reclaim the party name and symbol.

The Sharad Pawar-led group, now officially named NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), suffered a setback after Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Nawekar recognised the faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the "real" NCP and granted them the party's name and symbol.

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The speaker also rejected disqualification petitions filed against each other's MLAs by both factions.

The ruling came days after the Election Commission held the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the real NCP and allotted him the party name and symbol 'clock'.

"We had anticipated such a decision. The assembly speaker failed to maintain the dignity of his position. The decisions taken by the Election Commission and the speaker are unfair. Therefore, we are approaching the Supreme Court over the issue of the NCP name and symbol," Sharad Pawar told reporters in his hometown of Baramati in Pune district, news agency PTI reported.

Pawar said that it had never happened before that those who formed a political party were removed from the party itself.

"Those who formed the party were removed from it. This has never happened before. This decision was not right as per the judicial system. We have approached the Supreme Court over this issue. The entire country knows who founded the party," Pawar said.

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