The JD(U) faction led by Nitish Kumar today said the Sharad Yadav group's plea on party symbol has been "disposed of" by the Election Commission in its favour.
JD(U) parliamentary party leader R C P Singh showed a letter from the Election Commission on its decision on the Sharad group's application, filed through its counsel Javedur Rahman, to buttress Kumar group's claim.
The Commission "has not taken cognisance" of the application under the Symbols Order and "accordingly it stood disposed of," the EC letter signed by its secretary Pramod Kumar Sharma said.
Singh said the copy of EC's letter was sent to him in response to his application dated September 7 and asserted the matter has been settled in favour of JD(U) headed by Kumar.
He had written to the EC on the Commission's order to Javed Raza, the suspended JD(U) general secretary, on his August 25 application regarding the split in the party.
The EC had yesterday refused to take cognisance of Sharad Yadav faction's claim over the party's symbol, citing a lack of documents to support its stand.
"You have mentioned about existence of a separate/ splinter faction of JD(U) headed by Sharad Yadav and has sought an order to recognise the said faction as true JD(U).
"However, you have not produced any supporting documents to show that the group referred to in your application has adequate support of the legislative wing and the organisational wings of the party so as to make it a splinter group of the party..." the letter said.
It said the application (by Raza) had said the Sharad faction is in the process of collecting evidence on majority to claim the JD(U) symbol.
The application was not even signed by Raza, the EC letter said.
The Yadav faction had approached the EC on August 25 staking claim over the party's election symbol and insisting that a majority of its national council members were with it.
A group of party leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP R C P Singh and JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi met the EC last week and submitted affidavits of its leaders and office- bearers reposing faith in Kumar's leadership.
They had also demanded that the Yadav faction's application be rejected.
Tyagi said they had submitted the affidavits of all the 71 JD(U) MLAs and 30 MLCs, two Lok Sabha members and seven of the 10 Rajya Sabha lawmakers of the party, besides office bearers in their support.
Reacting to Sharad Yadav's assertion today that he has always given priority to political probity, Singh, a close confidant of Nitish Kumar, told PTI that he should maintain this and quit his Rajya Sabha seat for going against party decision to walk out of Grand Alliance.
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