Maharashtra polls: Sharad Pawar moves Supreme Court against Ajit Pawar over clock symbol

The Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has moved the Supreme Court taking objection to the continued allotment of clock symbol to the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP [Sharad Pawar vs Ajit Anantrao Pawar and anr]

The Sharad Pawar camp has claimed that Ajit Pawar has engineered 'large scale confusion' in the minds of voters by using the clock symbol associated with Sharad Pawar.

"[Ajit Pawar] has been leveraging upon the existing confusion in the minds of the people due to long standing association between the ‘Clock’ symbol and the Petitioner," the plea states.

Hence, the Ajit Pawar faction should be allotted a new symbol for the upcoming Maharashtra State Assembly elections, it has been prayed.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan is set to hear the matter on October 15.

The term of the current Maharashtra Assembly expires on November 26.

The Supreme Court had in March this year permitted Ajit Pawar faction to use the clock symbol for the 2024 parliamentary elections and Maharashtra State elections albeit with certain conditions.

This was after the Election Commission recognised Ajit Pawar faction as the real NCP following a split in the party.

The Sharad Pawar faction challenged the ECI decision before the Supreme Court when the top court chose to allow Ajit to retain the symbol for the time being till the Court decides which faction should be recognised as the real NCP.

The apex court also ordered Ajit faction to display certain disclaimers in any election advertisements containing the NCP's clock symbol.

These disclaimers were to clarify that the allocation of the clock symbol was still under dispute.

The Court further directed incorporation of such a disclaimer in every template advertisement and audio and video clips to be issued on behalf this faction of the NCP.

Pertinently, the Court also ordered Election Commission of India (ECI) to provisionally recognise Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP as a political party for with the symbol of a man blowing a tutari (trumpet).

In the latest application filed through advocate Abishek Jebaraj on September 25, the veteran politician has prayed that Ajit Pawar faction be allotted a new symbol to avoid confusion during campaigning for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.

It has been argued that a new symbol needs to be given to the Ajit Pawar faction so as to protect the sanctity of the clock symbol since the dispute relating to the ownership of the symbol is still sub-judice.

This will also ensure free and fair elections by ruling out the possibility of any bad-faith actors intending to leverage the 'existing and apparent confusion', it has been contended.

"Confusion would potentially be greater in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha elections due to the relatively smaller size of the Constituencies. Moreover, the degree of confusion is directly proportional to the impact on the electorate," the plea states.