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The Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday told the Election Commission that among the affidavits submitted by the rival Ajit Pawar group were names of deceased persons, minors and office-bearers of posts that do not exist within the NCP.
The group presented its “startling evidence” to the Election Commission during a hearing in the party dispute case, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, who was representing the Sharad Pawar faction, said.
Singhvi said a sample of around 20,000 affidavits submitted by Ajit Pawar supporting his claim to the party name and symbol were analysed and about 8,900 had various issues. Some carried the names of deceased persons, some were signed by those below 18 years and others were simply signed by “a housewife” and “Zomato sales manager”. He added that some of the affidavits of office-bearers were of posts that did not ever exist within the NCP and its constitution.
Terming this a “fraud” and “forgery”, Singhvi said the group asked the EC to take action against the Ajit Pawar group. He said the next hearing in the matter would be on November 20. Sharad Pawar, his daughter, NCP MP Supriya Sule, and other leaders of the faction were present at the hearing.
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Dismissing the allegations, the Ajit Pawar group claimed that the Sharad Pawar-led faction was “trying to delay the hearing by raising technical issues instead of merit-based points”.
“We have filed over 2.5 lakh affidavits. A very small number of affidavits were used by the other side to claim problems in our submission. We have been demanding that a regular hearing of the matter should be held and it will be held from November 20. The technical issues were brought at a time when we wanted a hearing based on merits of the case,” said Sunil Tatkare, state president from Ajit Pawar group.
The EC began hearing the matter on October 6, after Ajit Pawar moved it on June 30 claiming that he represented the party and seeking use of the name and election symbol.
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