New Delhi:

The current trend of defection in political parties that end up with the defecting faction being recognised as the “real” party, was slammed by the Supreme Court today, which called it a “mockery of voters”.

Hearing a petition of the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, the court made it clear the situation bypasses the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which was put in place to bar defections and the subsequent political instability.

The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) had gone to court to challenge the award of party name and symbol to the Ajit Pawar faction by the Election Commission.

The poll body’s decision was in line with its earlier order that awarded the party name and symbol to the rebel faction of the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, who subsequently became the Maharashtra Chief Minister.

“When the Election Commission is recognising a faction only on basis of legislative strength and not organisational strength, is it not recognizing a split, which is no longer approved under the tenth schedule,” said Justice J Vishwanathan.

“That way, you can engineer defections and claim the party symbol. Will it not be mockery of the voter?” the judge added.

Pune:

NCP working president Supriya Sule said on Saturday that she has never said anything against her politically estranged cousin Ajit Pawar.

Ms Sule, who represents the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, was in Pune to pray to various Ganesh idols during Ganeshotsav.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) suffered a jolt in July after a group of party leaders led by Ajit Pawar broke away and joined the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra. Ms Sule has remained with her father and party founder Sharad Pawar.

Talking to reporters after paying obeisance to the deity at the Kasba Ganpati pandal, she said, “I never ask anything from God, I only thank them. This year, the state has received less rain, so I prayed to God for Maharashtra to receive good showers.” 

Asked about her recent speech referring to “bhai” (brother) in Parliament, Sule said, “Ajit Dada is my elder brother and I have never said anything against him. Whatever I said in Parliament is not against any person but against the statements made by honourable PM Modiji and Amit Shah.” 

Speaking in Parliament on the women’s reservation bill, Sule had said, “Har ghar mein aise bhai nahi hote hain jo behan ka kalyan dekhte hain (not every house has a brother that looks after the  well-being of the sister).” 

She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised her party for the past 10 years but now he doesn’t say that NCP is a “Naturally Corrupt Party”.

“The BJP always conducted revenge politics. If allegations made against us are true, let there be an inquiry (against us). Also, if the allegations turn out to be false, BJP should apologise to us,” he said.

To a question about BJP Lok Sabha member Ramesh Bidhuri’s derogatory remarks in the Lower House against BSP MP Danish Ali, Sule said the comments were very unfortunate. The NCP and Trinamool Congress have already written to the Lok Sabha Speaker about the incident, she said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)