4. Pawar projections amid NCP crisis

| Jul 4, 2023, 23:46 IST

Name and symbol

IPL 2025 mega auction

Maharashtra deputy CM Ajit Pawar, whose revolt caused a split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has reportedly moved the election commission asking to be allotted the party’s official name and election symbol.
The move has striking similarities with CM Eknath Shinde’s revolt in the Shiv Sena last year which ended up becoming a battle over which faction – Shinde’s or Uddhav Thackeray’s – represented the “real” Sena. Earlier this year, Shinde won the battle with the election commission allotting his faction the party's bow and arrow symbol and right over assets.

Two meetings

Both Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar, who is still the chief of the NCP, have called separate meetings of MLAs today. There is a lot of suspense over the meetings as they are likely to throw more light on who has more support in terms of numbers, even as Sharad Pawar is reportedly seeking legal opinion on the matter.

Disqualification appeals

NCP leader Supriya Sule on Tuesday said that the party has written to the offices of Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha deputy chairman for disqualification of Sunil Tatkare and Praful Patel.
Sharad Pawar has already appealed to the Maharashtra assembly Speaker for disqualification of nephew Ajit and eight other rebel NCP legislators who were inducted as ministers in the Shinde-BJP government on Sunday.

In Uddhav camp

Shiv Sena (UBT) has once again knocked the door of the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Maharashtra assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions filed against CM Shinde and other Sena MLAs, who had tied up with the BJP to form a new government in June 2022, in a time-bound manner.
MLA Sunil Prabhu, who as chief whip of the undivided Shiv Sena had in 2022 filed the disqualification petitions against Shinde and other MLAs, alleged Speaker Rahul Narwekar is deliberately delaying the adjudication, violating an order of the top court issued on May 11.

Is Congress next?

Congress may go the same way as Shiv Sena and NCP. Two key leaders of Congress have been in talks with BJP and discussions have been going on for a while and is now in an advanced stage, reported NDTV.

Popular from Business

end of article