The fight for control of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) began before the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday with the first hearing on a claim by the Ajit Pawar-led faction over the 24-year-old party’s name and election symbol.

NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar personally attended the first hearing at the ECI office in New Delhi. Whereas, senior advocates represented the Ajit Pawar’s faction.

In an affidavit, the Ajit Pawar faction said that it enjoyed the support of 42 of the party’s 53 MLAs, six of the nine MLCs in Maharashtra, and all seven MLAs in Nagaland, apart from one of four in the Lok Sabha and one of three in the Rajya Sabha.

Affidavits from party workers, leaders, elected representatives were submitted before the commission.

The Ajit Pawar faction argued its case on Friday. The next hearing is scheduled on Monday.

It alleged that Sharad Pawar never followed democratic principles in the functioning of the NCP and ran the party arbitrarily, advocates from the Ajit led faction said.

“Under the circumstances, the petitioner submits that he enjoys overwhelming support in the organisational wing as well as legislative wing of the NCP and therefore the present petition may be allowed by the hon’ble commission by recognising the faction led by the petitioner to be the real political party,” Ajit Pawar faction said in the affidavit.

HT couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of the affidavit.

Sharad Pawar was represented by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Ajit Pawar was represented by senior advocates NK Kaul and Maninder Singh.

Singhvi objected to ECI’s decision to call for a hearing, saying that the poll body cannot decide this without hearing their side. “Your jurisdiction depends whether there is a dispute or not,” he said but was rejected by the poll panel.

“The commission heard us but said it will not decide at this stage, but assured us that when petitioners complete their argument, they will hear us,” Singhvi said stressing that the decision on rejecting their application can be challenged in a court and that decision will be taken collectively later.

He alleged that the documents submitted by the Ajit Pawar faction were either forged or falsified. “They don’t want the organisational test because they know 99% of the majority of the NCP cadre is with the man standing next to me (Sharad Pawar),” he said.

On July 2, Ajit Pawar joined the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government as deputy chief minister along with eight other ministers. The same day, he moved ECI under the symbols order for use of the name and the clock symbol of the NCP.

The faction said it elected Ajit Pawar as the new NCP national president in a meeting held on June 30. Ajit Pawar then appointed Praful Patel as the new working president. Taking cognisance of the petition filed by the Ajit led faction, ECI decided to start hearings over the split in the NCP on October 6.

On July 3, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP moved a disqualification motion against nine MLAs, including Ajit Pawar, who were inducted as ministers into the coalition government. A copy of this was sent to the EC. On July 6, the Pawar faction decided to expel all the nine MLAs, along with working president Praful Patel and general secretary Sunil Tatkare. The decision was taken in the working committee of the party held in Delhi. Later, the Pawar led party filed disqualification petition against 31 MLAs and five MLCs for anti-party activities.