EC allots name to Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction for upcoming Rajya Sabha polls

Only a handful of NCP MLAs sided with Sharad Pawar after nephew Ajit launched a rebellion

The Election Commission on February 7 allowed the NCP faction headed by veteran leader Sharad Pawar to use 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar' as its party name for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

The allotment comes a day after the polling body held that the NCP faction headed by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar is the real NCP based on its legislative strength.

As a result, it decided to grant the party's original analog clock symbol to the younger Pawar-led faction.

In a communique issued to Sharad Pawar on February 7, the EC said that the former Union minister had suggested three names for his faction, with the first preference being 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar', second 'Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadrao Pawar' and third 'NCP Sharad Pawar'.

The competent authority has "acceded to your first preference i.e. Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar as the name for your group/faction as a onetime option for the purpose of the forthcoming election to six seats in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra", the EC said. The voting for the Upper House seats will be held on February 27.

Notably, Ajit Pawar had rebelled against uncle Sharad in July last year, when he joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as a deputy chief minister. Over 40 of the NCP's 53 MLAs had sided him as switched political allegiance towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The split in the NCP came around a year after the Shiv Sena, another major regional party, was divided into two factions, with over 40 of the party's 55 MLAs siding with Eknath Shinde. Following Shinde's rebellion in June 2022, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government led by undivided Sena's president Uddhav Thackeray was brought down.