The name and election symbol of the Nationalist Congress Party may well go to the Ajit Pawar faction, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi indicated today. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, he said the Commission can only take a call on the poll name and symbol, not on disqualification. And this, he said, is decided on the basis of simple majority, not two-thirds majority.
"The Election Commission doesn't decide which is the bigger or smaller faction. It decides which is 'the party'. The majority part becomes the party," Mr Quraishi told NDTV.
"The original party with two-thirds majority can merge with another party. A breakaway faction cannot. A breakaway faction is a defector. But that defection is not decided by the EC. That is decided by the Speaker," he added.
Going by current numbers, the 32 MLAs supporting the Ajit Pawar faction may not protect it him from disqualification. But with the number going above the halfway mark of 28 -- the NCP has 53 MLAs -- it can help Pawar Junior get closer to the poll symbol and party name. Besides MLAs, the poll commission also calculates if the group has majority in terms of MPs, MLCs and office bearers of the party.
Asked about the current situation, where neither side has two-thirds majority, Mr Quraishi said, "the language of the law is that it has to be two-thirds of the original party that can merge. The original party is the mother party, in this case, Sharad Pawar... The Speaker's order is justiceable and I'm sure it will go to the Supreme Court".
Asked whether the Commission will wait for the Speaker's decision, Mr Quraishi said, "It is extremely crucial whether defection law is applied and those people are declared disqualified".
Citing the case of the Shiv Sena split, Mr Quraishi said initially the Supreme Court had asked the poll commission to wait, but later on, asked the Commission to go ahead and decide their part of the case.
"It will go by the precedent which took place six months ago. The Commission does not have to wait. But common sense says that if it is going to have a vital impact on the party's position... there is no urgency for the Election Commission as this is unlike the last time when local body elections were happening," he said.
In such a case, the Commission can easily take two or three months before their decision, he added.
While Ajit Pawar has approached the Election Commission claiming that the name and poll symbol of the party be allocated to him, the Sharad Pawar faction has written to the Speaker seeking disqualification of the rebels.
The faction led by Ajit Pawar – who crossed over to the ruling coalition and took oath as the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister on Sunday – have claimed they are the real NCP.
They have told the Election Commission that Ajit Pawar was chosen as party chief on Sunday by 40 MLAs, MLCs and MPs of the party.
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