'Example Of How An Institution Can Be Misused': Sharad Pawar On EC's Sena Order

"Never seen Election Commission take away total control of one party," Pawar said.

The head of the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar, the head of the Nationalist Congress Party, has joined the Sena vs. Sena conflict on Wednesday. "Never seen Election Commission take away total control of one party," he said, criticizing the commission's decision to recognize the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the true Shiv Sena and award it the "bow and arrow" poll symbol.

Election Commission gave a decision a few days ago. This is an example of how an institution can be misused. We've never seen such a decision by EC. Balasaheb Thackeray in his last days said that Shiv Sena's responsibility would be given to Uddhav Thackeray after him: NCP chief pic.twitter.com/zFr4ynLKEx

— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2023

Pawar's comments comes after Supreme Court issued a notice to the group led by the Maharashtra chief minister and refused to stay the Election Commission's order recognising the Eknath Shinde-led bloc as the real Shiv Sena on the plea of the rival Uddhav Thackeray camp challenging the poll panel's decision.

Senior attorney Kapil Sibal, who was representing Thackeray, made his arguments, and a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud asked the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde for a response.

The Shinde faction's legal team informed the bench, which also included Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, that it would not, at this time, issue a whip or begin a process to disqualify lawmakers from the Thackeray faction. 

“All right, issue notice. The counter affidavit will be filed within two weeks,” the bench said, quoted PTI.

The bench, however, refused to overturn the poll panel's decision to recognise the Shinde faction as the true Shiv Sena while issuing a notice, stating that it could not do so without hearing the opposing side.

On Tuesday, the supreme court agreed to hear the Thackeray camp's argument against the Election Commission's decision.

The poll panel had also ordered the transfer of the original "bow and arrow" poll symbol of the party to the Shinde-led bloc, recognizing it as the real Shiv Sena.