The Sharad Pawar faction had submitted its three preferences for party name on ECI’s directives to enable its leaders to contest the Rajya Sabha polls
The Sharad Pawar faction will be known as Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar for the Rajya Sabha elections for six seats from Maharashtra on February 27, the Election Commission of India (ECI) decided on Wednesday.
The ECI accepted the first of the three names suggested by the party, as it had ordered.
The Sharad Pawar faction had submitted its three preferences for the party to enable its leaders to contest the Rajya Sabha polls
The three names proposed by the faction, in order of their preference, were ‘Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar,’ ‘Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadrao Pawar’ and ‘NCP — Sharad Pawar.’
The decision capped a months-long feud between Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit, who joined hands with the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in a surprise move in 2023.
The ECI verdict had to make a special arrangement for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections for Maharashtra, since the rules require lawmakers to show their ballot paper to the authorized agent of the party before putting it in the ballot box to ‘allow the authorized agent of that political party to verify as to whom such elector has cast his vote.’
‘The special circumstances, which has come into being, triggers a peculiarity as to whom the MLAs of the faction led by Respondent (Sharad Pawar) would show their votes in terms of provision of 39AA of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 in the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election in Maharashtra,’ the ECI order said.
‘Accordingly, by virtue of power in Para 18 of the Symbols Order, the Commission provides a one-time option to the Respondent, for the purposes of forthcoming Election to Rajya Sabha in Maharashtra, to claim a new name to its new political formation and provide three preferences for the purpose of the Biennial Election to 6 seats in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra,’ the order said.