Sharad Pawar faction can use 'NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar' name till further orders: SC
New Delhi, Feb 19: The Supreme Court on Monday directed that Election Commission's order of February 7 granting name of 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' for the group led by Sharad Pawar will continue till further orders.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan sought response of Ajit Pawar-led faction on a plea of Sharad Pawar against the February 7 order of Election Commission recognising the Maharashtra deputy chief minister-led group as the real Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The bench gave liberty to Sharad Pawar to move the poll panel for allocation of the party symbol and directed the poll panel to allot it in one week of the application.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Sharad Pawar, said that order passed by the Election Commission on February 7 is an interim arrangement made by the poll panel for Rajya Sabha elections till February 27.
"The Maharashtra assembly session is scheduled to start from February 26 and our group will be without any name or symbol," he submitted.
Sharad Pawar had sought an urgent hearing of his plea in the top court in the wake of twin blows suffered by the group led by him and the consequential fear of facing action for possible violations of whip by his MLAs.
He had sought urgent hearing in view of the February 15 order of Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar.
Narwekar held that the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar was the real NCP and that the anti-defection provisions in the Constitution cannot be used to stifle internal dissent.
Prior to this, the poll panel announced on February 7 that the Ajit Pawar faction is the real NCP and also allotted the party's 'clock' symbol to the group.
The one day special Maharashtra assembly session on Maratha quota is beginning on February 20.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
