Mumbai: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party would publish a new disclaimer in newspapers announcing that its use of the ‘clock’ symbol is sub-judice, Bar and Bench reported.
The party informed the court about publishing the disclaimer after a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan directed it to publish fresh disclaimer within 36 hours.
‘Let needful be done in prominent part of newspapers with wide publicity,’ the bench was quoted as saying.
The court gave the direction while hearing a plea submitted by Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party seeking to stop Ajit Pawar faction from using the ‘clock’ symbol in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
The court had previously on October 24 directed the Ajit Pawar group to put a disclaimer to all campaign materials.
Meanwhile, the court directed the Ajit Pawar faction to file a counter affidavit responding to the Sharad Pawar faction’s interim application seeking a new symbol for the Ajit Pawar camp in the polls.
Even as the polls are round the corner, the Sharad Pawar faction leader Supriya Sule rejected possibility of reconciliation with the rival group.
Ajit Pawar along with several party MLAs joined the BJP led coalition govt in July 2023 with Ajit Pawar becoming the deputy chief minister in the cabinet led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The development in the state politics led to split in the Nationalist Congress Party.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission recognized Ajit Pawar faction as the original Nationalist Congress party and allocated the clock symbol to it, while the other faction got the name ‘Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar’ and granted it the “man blowing a turha” symbol.