Siddique was welcomed into the party fold by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and top NCP leaders, including the party working president Praful Patel and state unit president Sunil Tatkare
On Tuesday, the EC gave the Nationalist Congress Party name and the “clock” election symbol to the group led by Ajit Pawar that had walked away with a majority of NCP MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly in July last year and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government
The commission’s order comes just before the Rajya Sabha polls where MLAs voting in Maharashtra need to show their votes to the designated agent of the party they are a member of
NCP vs NCP: The ECI acceded the Sharad Pawar faction's first preference as the name of the group as a one-time option for the Rajya Sabha elections. They may later have to get registered as a new party with a new name, ECI sources said