Don’t use pictures of Sharad Pawar, Supreme Court tells Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction

Amid ongoing campaigning for the November 20 elections for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, the Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction to try standing on its own legs and avoid using the pictures of Sharad Pawar, the leader of the rival NCP group.

“You try to stand up on your own legs, now that you have ideological differences with Sharad Pawar,” a Bench led by Justice Surya Kant told senior advocate Balibir Singh, representing the Ajit Pawar faction.

Asking both the NCP factions to focus on their side of the electoral battle, the Bench, which included Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, emphasised that voters were wise enough to see through any confusion.

It asked the Ajit Pawar faction to circulate an online circular among its leaders, party workers involved in the Assembly elections that they would not use the picture or video/audio clip of Sharad Pawar — old or new.

“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,” it told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP. The court’s comments came after Singhvi complained that an MLC from the Ajit Pawar faction had circulated a video clip of Sharad Pawar.