The Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has sought the name and symbol of the party under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order, 1968 in a petition filed before the Election Commission. The petition, which was sent on June 30, includes 40 affidavits of legislators supporting Ajit Pawar. The faction has also unanimously elected Ajit Pawar as the NCP president, according to an undated resolution received by the EC.

In response, the Sharad Pawar faction has filed a caveat to be heard before the EC disposes of the petition filed by the Ajit group. The caveat was filed after the request for disqualification of nine Maharashtra NCP MLAs was filed before the Maharashtra Speaker’s office.

The Election Commission now has to determine which faction should be given the existing name and symbol of the Nationalist Congress Party. Both factions will be required to prove their organizational and legislative majority, a process that could take several months. With less than 9 months left for the notification of the Lok Sabha polls, the decision and the time taken for it will be crucial.

This is the second fight for the party name and symbol from the state in a year. The first one happened after Eknath Shinde and his colleagues split from the Shiv Sena.

The Election Commission’s decisions in such cases are based on the Symbols Order of 1968 and the 1972 Supreme Court order in the Sadiq Ali Vs Election Commission of India case. Similar to previous cases, the EC followed the principle in the Shiv Sena case and granted the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to the Shinde faction last February. The Supreme Court upheld the EC ruling, thereby reinforcing its primacy in determining symbol-related disputes.