Election Commission allows NCP-SP to accept voluntary contributions from public ahead of Maharashtra state Assembly elections | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Monday allowed Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) to contest voluntary contributions of the public, whereby an important demand of the party is met prior to voting in Maharashtra. The EC order is provisional and subject to the final outcome of the Supreme Court case regarding last year’s bifurcation of NCP.
Sources said that the NCP-SP, whose eight-member delegation was led by the party’s working chairman, Supriya Sule met the polling station here on Monday, also asked for his reserved symbol ‘man blowing turha’ should be made ‘thicker and more prominent’, arguing that it is a combination of multiple icons – a man wearing a turban and turha – and is less recognisable to the voters’ eye than, say, a single-icon symbol like ‘hand’ or ‘lotus’. NCP-SP, which put up an impressive show in the recent Lok Sabha elections by winning 8 seats in Maharashtra, has also requested the EC not to allot ‘turha’, which is in the list of free symbols, to any other candidate or party.
Sources at the EC told TOI that these requests would be considered.
NCP-SP had written to the polling station on March 27 and April 4, 2024, requesting them to issue a notice or certificate recording the party’s status for accepting voluntary contributions from the public under Section 29B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
In granting the request, the EC on Monday authorised the NCP-SP to “accept on an interim basis… any amount of contributions voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a government undertaking”. It, however, asked the party to share with the EC, before accepting any contribution, details such as the location of its headquarters, communication address and local units; names of senior functionaries; numerical strength of its members and its elected representatives in parliament or state legislatures; and a copy of the party’s Memorandum of Association, all as prescribed by Section 29B of the RP Act. Any change in these details would also have to be communicated to the EC “without delay”, the polling body said.
NCP-SP would also be required to file a contribution report, as per Section 29B and 29C of the RP Act, declaring receipts of more than Rs 20,000 in a financial year. Such a report would have to mention the party’s PAN number.
The EC’s approval for the NCP-SP to accept public contributions, coupled with its good performance in the recent general elections, is expected to provide a significant financial boost ahead of the Maharashtra elections.
Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand are likely to go to polls in October.
EC, in its final order dated February 6, 2024, in the NCP symbol dispute, had recognised the breakaway NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar as the real NCP and granted it the reserved election symbol ‘clock’. However, it allowed the Sharad Pawar outfit to claim a new name for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra and approved its first preference, ‘NCP-SP’.
Later, SC, in an interim order in NCP split case, allowed NCP-SP to continue using the same name and asked it to approach EC for a poll symbol. EC granted NCP-SP the symbol ‘man blowing turha’ on February 22. On March 23, EC provisionally recognised NCP-SP and reserved the symbol ‘man blowing turha’ for the purpose of general elections to Lok Sabha and four state assemblies.