Leaders of the Sharad Pawar camp on Tuesday questioned the Election Commission's decision to declare the Ajit Pawar faction as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), saysing it was a "murder of democracy". They claimed the decision was taken under pressure, whereas Praful Patel (leader of Ajit Pawar camp) welcomed the ruling.
The poll body also allotted the NCP symbol 'wall clock' to the group led by Ajit Pawar which comes up as a big blow to senior Pawar ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha election.
"This is the murder of democracy. What happened is unfortunate,” former Maharashtra minister Anil Deshmukh said.
The poll panel gave this ruling under “pressure from above,” asserted Deshmukh.
Big victory for Ajit Pawar ahead of polls
On the other hand, senior NCP leader Praful Patel said the EC ruling proves that the majority of party workers and elected representatives are with Ajit Pawar.
Meanwhile, the EC's ruling ended months of speculation over the factional fight between Ajit Pawar and party founder and his uncle Sharad Pawar.
Deshmukh said a similar decision was taken in the case of Shiv Sena, referring to the ECI recognising the Eknath Shinde-led group as the real Shiv Sena after he rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray in 2022.
"Everybody knows Sharad Pawar founded the Nationalist Congress Party and he has been the party's national president since its inception," Deshmukh added.
EC itself starts to legitimise theft: Aaditya Thackeray
Sharad Pawar faction's ally and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray targeted the Election Commission, saying the poll body itself starts to legitimise theft.
"When the election commission itself starts to legitimise theft, you know that democracy is doomed. The election commission has now once again proved to be the fraud that it is, Entirely Compromised (EC). They are now showing everyone that we aren’t a free and fair democracy anymore," Thackeray posted on X.
The ECI decision followed the laid-out tests of maintainability of such a petition which included tests of aims and objectives of the party constitution, test of party constitution and tests of majority both organisational and legislative, the commission said.
“The test of majority in the legislative wing found favour in this circumstance of the case, where both groups have been found to be working outside the party constitution and the organisational elections," the poll authority observed.
(With PTI inputs)
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