Election Commission awards NCP poll symbol to Ajit Pawar faction

Ajit Pawar, along with a majority of NCP MLAs, joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government last year

The Election Commission on February 6 said it has awarded the 'analog clock' poll symbol of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to the faction headed by Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.

The decision comes months after a split emerged in the NCP ranks, with uncle and party founder Sharad Pawar on one side and his nephew Ajit Pawar on the other.

Over 40 out of NCP's 53 MLAs sided with the younger Pawar, after he decided to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra in July last year.

The EC decision to award the NCP poll symbol is based on the "test of legislative majority", as more than two-third of the party's legislators are on his side.

"Ajit Pawar gets Nationalist Congress Party name and symbol after more than 10 hearings spread over more than 6 months. ‘Test of Legislative majority’ clinches symbol in view of disputed internal organizational elections," the spokesperson of the Election Commission said.

The polling body's order comes a month after Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narvekar, while issuing his verdict on cross-petitions filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) and Eknath Shinde-headed Shiv Sena MLAs seeking each others' disqualifications, held that the faction headed Shinde was considered as the "real Shiv Sena".

The split in Sena dates back to June 2022, around a year before the cracks in NCP emerged. The division in Sena led to the downfall of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government, as over 40 out of the undivided Sena's 55 MLAs sided with Shinde.

The recognition of Shinde's Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction with their original poll symbols comes as a shot in the arm for both the parties ahead of the high-stake Lok Sabha elections. The two parties are part of the Maha Yuti or the state-level alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).