Advantage Ajit Pawar as SC allows his faction to use NCP’s 'clock' symbol in in Maharashtra poll

Ahead of the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections, the Supreme Court on Thursday 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.

A Bench led by Justice Surya Kant permitted the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to use the “clock” symbol with the disclaimer that the matter was sub-judice.

Founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999, the NCP had “clock” as its election symbol before its split in 2023.

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.

The Bench – which also included Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan issued a notice to the Ajit Pawar-led faction on Pawar senior’s plea and posted the matter for further hearing on November 6.

The top court had earlier directed the Ajit Pawar-led faction to issue a public notice in English, Hindi and Marathi newspapers notifying that the allocation of “clock” symbol was sub-judice. The Ajit Pawar faction was permitted to use the symbol subject to the final outcome of the dispute.

On Thursday, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi urged the Bench on behalf of the Sharad Pawar faction to restrain the rival faction using the “clock” symbol as it didn’t use the disclaimer in its campaign materials and “misled” voters.

”They have been blatantly not using the disclaimer. They want to piggyback on me. Nobody should enjoy the goodwill of the symbol which is sub-judice,” Singhvi said, adding the Ajit Pawar group should be allocated a new symbol for the ensuing assembly elections.

The Bench directed Ajit Pawar to file a fresh undertaking over its March 19 and April 4 directions to issue a public notice—“NCP’s ‘clock’ symbol is sub-judice”—was being meticulously complied with even during the assembly elections. “If there is any violation, we will take note of it. We expect both sides to comply with our directions. Please don’t create an embarrassing situation,” it said.

On behalf of the Ajit Pawar faction, senior counsel Balbir Singh sought to counter Singhvi’s submissions, saying all pamphlets and campaign materials contained the disclaimers as directed by the court and that the allegations were baseless.

In the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 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”.