Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the alleged misuse of his photographs and the disputed clock symbol by the Ajit Pawar-led breakaway faction of the party during the Maharashtra Assembly elections, reported The Hindu.

Sharad Pawar alleged that his nephew used the symbol to “benefit from the goodwill associated with it”, The Hindu reported.

Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party is part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra, in alliance with the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Congress. The Ajit Pawar-led faction of the party is part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena group led by former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan has been hearing a petition moved by Sharad Pawar in October, seeking to stop his nephew’s group from using the clock symbol in the polls. The petition sought a new election symbol for the Ajit Pawar faction to prevent confusion among voters.

On October 24, the court told Ajit Pawar’s party to add a disclaimer to all its campaign material for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, clarifying that its use of the “clock” symbol is sub-judice.

On November 13, it directed Ajit Pawar not to use photographs and videos of Sharad Pawar in its campaign material for the Assembly elections. “You try to stand up on your own legs, now that you have ideological difference with Sharad Pawar,” the bench said.

On Tuesday, Sharad Pawar filed an interim application claiming that Ajit Pawar’s group continued to flout the direction, The Indian Express reported.

He also sought permission to submit additional documents, which he said would establish “the ongoing and blatant non-compliance of the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court till date”.

The application enclosed evidence, including a screenshot of a social media post deleted by Amol Mitkari, a legislator from the Ajit Pawar faction, showing a video of Sharad Pawar praising his nephew.

It also included photographs of election banners from Ajit Pawar’s faction using the clock symbol without a disclaimer.

“The same are contemporaneous evidence of the non-compliance of the [court’s] order…by [Ajit Pawar] till date; in an attempt to engineer confusion in the minds of the electorate in relation to the ‘clock’ symbol and unduly benefit from the goodwill associated with it, whilst the captioned matter is sub-judice,” the application said, according to The Indian Express.

In the recently concluded Assembly elections, the Mahayuti alliance won 230 out of 288 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 132 seats, the Shinde Sena won in 57 seats and Ajit Pawar’s NCP won in 41 places.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi won just 46 seats.The Uddhav Sena won 21 seats, the Congress won 16 and Sharad Pawar’s NCP emerged victorious in 10 constituencies.

In July 2023, Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs joined Maharashtra’s coalition government comprising the BJP and the Shiv Sena faction led by Shinde. After joining the coalition, Ajit Pawar became the deputy chief minister.

The move had led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.

In February, the Election Commission recognised the faction led by Ajit Pawar as the legitimate Nationalist Congress Party and allocated it the clock symbol that is historically associated with it.

The poll panel assigned the name “Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar” to the Sharad Pawar-led group.

This group was allocated the “man blowing a turha” symbol ahead of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, but the move was challenged by the Sharad Pawar faction in the Supreme Court.

Also read: How the Supreme Court favoured Ajit Pawar-led NCP, while appearing to pull it up