BREAKING: After Losing NCP Symbol to Nephew, Sharad Pawar Gets New Name For Faction

New Delhi: Day after Sharad Pawar lost party symbol to his nephew Ajit Pawar, the former NCP chairman on Wednesday got a new name for his faction: "Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar". In a big decision, Election Commission granted the NCP name and symbol to Ajit Pawar on Tuesday. Earlier, Supriya Sule had stated that the Sharad Pawar faction would move Supreme Court over ECI's decision. The Sharad Pawar bloc had proposed three names for their new party after the poll panel had ruled that the real NCP belongs to Ajit Pawar. 

The three names that were proposed by the Sharad Pawar faction were Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar, Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Chandra Pawar and Nationalist Congress Party Sharadrao Pawar. The bloc had also floated 'Banyan tree' for the symbol.

The NCP, founded by Sharad Pawar in 1999, got split in July last year after his nephew and senior leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led government along with eight MLAs of the party. In a setback to Sharad Pawar, the EC on Tuesday recognised the camp led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar as the real NCP and also allotted the party name and symbol to it. The senior Pawar's supporters rallied behind him and asserted that for them, Sharad Pawar means the party and symbol. They also said that everyone in the state knows to whom the NCP actually belongs.

(With inputs from PTI)