The Election Commission (EC) has accepted the request made by the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) to allow it to accept voluntary contributions from the public in view of the upcoming Assembly election in Maharashtra.
The Sharad Pawar-led party had requested the commission to issue a communication or certificate recording the status of the party for the purpose of accepting voluntary contributions from the public.
The EC, in its communication to the party on Monday, authorised it “to accept any amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a government company” in compliance with Section 29 B and Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which govern the contribution to all political parties.
An eight-member delegation of the NCP-SP led by its working president Supriya Sule met the commission earlier in the day at the EC headquarters in New Delhi.
The NCP split in July last year after Ajit Pawar and eight other MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde government in the State. The EC later gave the party name and “clock” symbol to the faction led by Ajit Pawar, while the Sharad Pawar group was allotted the symbol of “man blowing turha” (a traditional trumpet).
