Ajit Pawar created confusion in minds of voters, Sharad Pawar tells Supreme Court

NCP chief Sharad Pawar with his nephew Ajit Pawar at an event in Mumbai, before falling out. (File photo)
| Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI

Days after the Maharashtra poll rout, NCP (SP) president and member of the trounced Maha Vikas Aghadi Sharad Pawar moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 26, 2024) accusing nephew Ajit Pawar, who is part of the ruling Mahayuti coalition, of having engineered confusion in the minds of the voters and benefitting from his uncle’s goodwill among the people.

Mr. Pawar named six pieces of material evidence to support his claim.

However, the case listed before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyyan failed to come up for hearing as the court rose early in preparation for the Constitution Day celebrations at the Supreme Court with Prime Minister Narenda Modi attending. The case may be listed next week.

The NCP patriarch said Mr. Ajit Pawar repeatedly flouted the orders of the Supreme Court on March 19 and April 4 to publish disclaimers about the pending dispute between the Pawars over ownership of the party ‘clock’ symbol.

He accused Mr. Ajit Pawar of “blatant non-compliance” of the court orders, which he said he could prove with video evidence.

The evidence, he said, included a copy of a screenshot showing a post deleted by legislator Amol Mitkari, who belongs to the Ajit Pawar faction, of a video of Sharad Pawar praising Ajit Pawar; a copy of photos of election banners of Ajit Pawar with clock symbol without any disclaimer in the Baramati Vidhan Sabha constituency; similarly, election banners of Ajit Pawar’s candidate Dattatray Bharne sporting the clock without disclaimers; Ajit Pawar candidate Sanjay Patil banners with clock sans disclaimer in Tasgaon Kavathe Mahankal Vidhan Sabha; Adv. Minaltai Sathe flying banners with clock without any disclaimer in Madha Vidhan Sabha; and photos or videos which circulated in Hadapsar Vidhan Sabha showing Ajit Pawar’s candidate with Sharad Pawar.

Prior to the elections, in a hearing on November 13, the apex court had advised the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to try standing on its own legs and not lean on the influence of Sharad Pawar with whom they had split on “ideological differences”.

The Bench had then suggested that both Pawar factions focus on the upcoming Assembly election battlefield rather than doing rounds of the courts.

“People of India are very intelligent and they have a fair idea about who Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar are. They cannot be fooled so easily,” Justice Kant had told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Sharad Pawar.

The elder Pawar had accused his nephew, who had split to join the Eknath Sinde-Devendra Phadnavis government, of using his photographs, the party name and past videos of the two Pawars together in better days to mislead the voters.

Ajit Pawar had countered in court that the same pictures were used by his uncle’s faction to garner votes in the Lok Sabha elections.