Supreme Court to Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction: ‘Stand on your own, don’t use Sharad Pawar’s image’
Amid ongoing campaigning for the November 20 election for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to try standing on its own legs and avoid using the pictures of Sharad Pawar – the leader of rival NCP group.
“You try to stand up on your own legs, now that you have ideological differences with Sharad Pawar,” a bench led by Justice Surya Kant told senior advocate Balibir Singh – representing the Ajit Pawar faction of NCP.
Asking both the NCP factions to focus on their side of the electoral battle, the bench, which also included Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, emphasised that voters are wise enough to see through any confusion.
It asked the Ajit Pawar faction to circulate an online circular among its leaders and party workers involved in the Assembly election that they will not use the picture or video/audio clip of Sharad Pawar — old or new.
“The people of India are very intelligent and they have a fair idea about who Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar are. They cannot be fooled so easily,” the bench told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the Sharad Pawar faction of NCP.
The court’s comments came after Singhvi complained that a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) from the Ajit Pawar faction had circulated a video clip of Sharad Pawar.
Referring to its order restraining the Ajit Pawar faction from using pictures or symbols of the Sharad Pawar faction, the bench said when there was an order of the Supreme Court, it had to be respected.
It said some people might get confused for a short while in this era of artificial intelligence, where voices and pictures of leaders can be misused.
The bench posted Sharad Pawar faction’s petition alleging misuse of the “clock” symbol and his picture by the Ajit Pawar-led group for further hearing on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court had on November 6 directed the Ajit Pawar-led faction of NCP to publish a disclaimer within 36 hours in Marathi and other newspapers that the issue of allocation of “clock” symbol was sub-judice.
Founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999, NCP had “clock” as its election symbol before its split in 2023.
On November 6, the top court asked Ajit Pawar faction to issue a disclaimer over the contentious “clock” election symbol that allocation of it was sub-judice and advised the warring Pawar factions to woo voters and not waste their energy in court.
The top court had on October 24 allowed Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to use the party’s “clock” symbol for publicity even as its dispute with the Sharad Pawar faction of NCP over the issue remained pending.
It had permitted the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to use the “clock” symbol with the disclaimer that the matter was sub-judice.
The order came on a petition filed by the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, challenging the February 6 order of the Election Commission recognising the Ajit Pawar-led group as the real NCP.
In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the top court had on March 19 allowed the Sharad Pawar faction to use “Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar” as its name along with the symbol of a man blowing “turha”.
