The Sharad Pawar-led group of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Wednesday said that the Election Commission`s decision on NCP is against the Supreme Court order and the party will challenge it in the apex court, the PTI reported.

According to the PTI, the Sharad Pawar camp said that it will approach the Supreme Court against the Election Commission`s order recognising the rival Ajit Pawar faction as the “real” party and allotting it the “clock” election symbol.

Clyde Crasto, a spokesperson of the `Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar`, the name allotted by the EC for the group led by the former Union minister, said the poll panel`s order goes against a Supreme Court directive which gives importance to a political party over its legislative wing in case of a dispute, as per the PTI.

“We will obviously go to the Supreme Court. There is a Supreme Court directive which says that legislative party cannot be chosen over the political party. So if the decision has gone against the Supreme Court`s verdict then we will go approach to the Supreme Court because we have faith in it,” Crasto said, the news agency reported.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission gave the Nationalist Congress Party name and “clock” election symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar, who had walked away with a majority NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra assembly in July last year and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government.

The Ajit Pawar faction is the `real` Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the EC had said in its ruling that came as a major setback to party founder Sharad Pawar.

Ajit Pawar is now a deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.

On Wednesday, the poll authority allotted `Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar` as the party name for the group led by Sharad Pawar.

Meanwhile, Jayant Patil, who heads the state unit of NCP (Sharad Pawar) camp, had on Tuesday said, “We will approach the Supreme Court as it is our last hope. It is our innocent expectation that the SC will stay the decision of the ECI. We have to stand firm behind Sharad Pawar. The party workers need not worry.

He said the NCP was founded by Sharad Pawar who developed it from the grassroots and also helped many leaders grow in their political careers.

“The Supreme Court (in the past) had said that even though MLAs shift their loyalty, the party does not follow them. Despite this, the ECI has given a decision based on the elected representatives and their inclination,”, he added.

(with PTI inputs)

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