Forum

Praful Patel

Indian National Congress

An NGO has applied to register itself at state election commission under the same name NCP uses in rural areas.Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) might have to do away with the name it uses in rural Maharashtra. Reason, a Navi Mumbaibased NGO has applied to register itself by the same name.NCP uses the name Rashtrawadi Congress Party in rural areas, but now Conscious Citizenshas applied to the state election commission to register in the same name.The group had applied to the Election Commission of India under Right to Information (RTI) Act to ask whether NCP had Rashtrawadi Congress Party as its second name. On September 27, the commission said that no such permission was given. The commission’s Central Information Officer Pramod Kumar Sharma also stated that the name Rashtrawadi Congress Party has not been registered with the commission.The NGO also informed the Commission that many candidates have used the name in the past, regarding which the latter replied that they had no knowledge about this.The group then applied to the state election commission to register its party in that name. If the application is approved, NCP will not be able to use their second name.Advocate Vinod Gangwal, who holds the position of general secretary in the upcoming party, said, “We are going to contest the forthcoming elections throughout the state on all seats and we don’t want someone else to use the name that we want for our party. We will try to get it registered at the Election Commission of India as well.”Meanwhile, State Election Commissioner Neel Satyanarayan said, “I have received the group’s application. But there are some loopholes, and I have asked the group to complete the application again.”Asked if NCP could also use the name, she said, “NCP cannot use any other name. The NCP leaders had come to meet me. They will soon take a call on what to do.”A disgruntled NCP leader,, said, “Let them apply. They will not get it.”NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “Our name is Nationalist Congress Party, which translates to Rashtrawadi Congress Party in Hindi and Marathi. Just likeis called Bharatiya Rashtriya Congress. Someone wants to misuse our name. We will plead before the commission that the application must not be considered, as it will create confusion. Many other names are available. This NGO’s intentions are malafide.”