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Ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on NCP's factional feud over the 'clock' symbol, the Sharad Pawar camp has alleged that Ajit Pawar, who leads the breakaway party, "tried to create confusion" in voters' minds and "unduly tried to benefit from goodwill" associated with the symbol. In its affidavit, the veteran politician's camp has sought the top court's permission to submit six documents to prove the allegation.
The Supreme Court will be hearing the matter today. The backdrop to the hearing is the BJP-led Mahayuti's mammoth mandate in the Maharashtra Assembly polls. Bouncing back from its Lok Sabha election setback, Ajit Pawar's NCP won 41 Assembly seats and the Sharad Pawar faction managed just 10. In the general election in June, the veteran's camp had trumped the Ajit Pawar faction 8-1.
A rebellion led by Ajit Pawar last year split the NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar with PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar in 1999. Ajit Pawar then joined the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena government with the MLAs supporting him.
The Election Commission subsequently ruled that Ajit Pawar's camp was the 'real' NCP and allotted it the party's name and 'clock' symbol. The Sharad Pawar camp challenged this in Supreme Court. The court then allowed the Sharad Pawar camp to use 'Nationalist Congress Party Sharadchandra Pawar) as its name and a man blowing a trumpet as its symbol for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
The court allowed the Ajit Pawar faction to keep using 'NCP' party name and the 'clock' symbol for the polls. This was contested by the Sharad Pawar camp, who accused the Ajit Pawar faction of violating court's orders by using the NCP name and symbol without any clarification that the matter is sub-judice. The court had then pulled up the Ajit Pawar camp and asked it to issue disclaimers in this connection.