Today in Politics: SC to hear Sharad Pawar’s plea against Ajit; Rahul v/s Smriti in Amethi

Later, it filed two more disqualification petitions against 20 and 11 MLAs respectively. In September 2023, the Ajit Pawar group went on an offensive and filed disqualification petitions against 10 members of the Sharad Pawar group.

In his ruling, Narwekar declared the Ajit Pawar’s faction as “the real political party” and held that Ajit Pawar’s assertions about vote share and majority in the legislature were not disputed by the Sharad Pawar faction.

“Ajit Pawar faction constituted the will of the party,” he underlined.

Narwekar’s ruling comes two weeks after the Election Commission declared the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the real NCP and allotted it the party’s clock symbol.

Sharad Pawar, whose faction is now called NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), termed Narvekar’s decision as “an injustice”, one that was made through a ”settlement.”

On Friday, Sharad Pawar moved the Supreme Court for an urgent listing of his plea challenging the EC’s ruling that recognised the Ajit Pawar-led faction as the real NCP.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and KV Viswanathan is likely to hear the matter.

In context: The issue of what constituted the “real party” was also debated earlier in the case of the two Senas — one led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde; the other led by Uddhav Thackeray. The situation was also similar: Shinde, like Ajit Pawar, led a rebellion and claimed he had the maximum organisational strength. Both the factions of the Sena had accused each other of defying the party’s whip over the election of a Speaker and the trust vote (through which Shinde proved his majority) that was held on July 4, 2022. They then went on to seek disqualification of the MLAs from the opposite side.In May 2023, the Supreme Court ruled the Shinde faction as the official Sena and gave the responsibility of deciding on the disqualification petitions of MLAs — 34 in total — from the two rival Senas to Narwekar.

In January this year, Narweker ruled that the Eknath Shinde faction was the “real Shiv Sena” as it had the support of the majority of the party’s MLAs. The Uddhav Thackeray group has moved the SC challenging Narwekar’s order; the matter is still being heard.

Sandeshkhali matter in SC

The SC on Monday is scheduled to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a court-monitored CBI or SIT probe into the allegations of sexual assault on women by members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali village.

A bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Augustine George Masih will hear the PIL that has been filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava.

The plea, filed by Srivastava in his personal capacity, also seeks compensation for the victims of the Sandeshkhali violence and action against officials of the West Bengal Police for alleged dereliction of duty.

The plea seeks transfer of the probe and subsequent trial outside West Bengal. Besides, it seeks an inquiry by a three-judge committee as done in the case of Manipur sexual violence cases.

Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district, has seen protests over allegations of sexual abuse of women by a local TMC leader named Shajahan Sheikh. Shajahan is currently absconding.

Rahul v/s Smriti

Amethi in Uttar Pradesh is bracing for an interesting face-off on Monday.

Union minister Smriti Irani, who currently represents Amethi, will be on a four-day visit to the seat beginning Monday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is also set to enter the town the same day.

Gandhi was Amethi MP for 15 years until Irani defeated him in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a margin of 35,000 votes.

While Irani will hold interactions with residents of several villages, Gandhi will hold a road show and public meeting in Amethi town.

Gandhi’s comments will be closely tracked, as the Congress once again finds itself having to deal with buzz of its senior leaders deserting it.

While it was the news of former Madhy Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and his son Nakul Nath allegedly looking to join the BJP since Friday, rumours about senior MP Manish Tewari leaving the party did the rounds on Sunday.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also head to UP on Monday to lay the foundation stone of the Kalki Dham Temple in the Sambhal district of the state. He will also address a gathering subsequently.

The temple is being constructed by the Shri Kalki Dham Nirman Trust whose chairman is Acharya Pramod Krishnam. Krishnam was expelled by the Congress for “anti-party remarks” earlier this month.

— With inputs from PTI