Election Commission of India must realise NCP founder is still around: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut expressed on Monday that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should take into account that breakaway leaders Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel are asserting to represent the true Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) even though the party's founder Sharad Pawar is still around and had even attended a hearing at the apex poll body in connection with the split.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started the trend of breaking political parties and families, which was dangerous for democracy, Raut, a Rajya Sabha MP, told reporters. Even if the BJP engineers splits in parties, the ideology remains with the original party. People laugh when one says Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena or Ajit Pawar’s NCP, he asserted.

Shiv Sena experienced a split in June of the previous year following a rebellion led by Shinde. On the other hand, the NCP faced a division into two factions after Ajit Pawar and eight MLAs joined the state government on July 2 of the current year.