With the Election Commission barring the Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde from using the party name its election symbol ‘bow and arrow’, the former said it is ready to accept any of the names related to Sena.
“Our party’s name is Shiv Sena, if ECI gives any of the names related to Shiv Sena including ‘Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray)’, ‘Shiv Sena (Prabodhankar Thackeray)’ or ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’, that would be acceptable to us,” said Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) MP Arvind Sawant.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Uddhav Thackeray faction has given a list of three names and symbols for the upcoming bypoll in Mumbai’s Andheri East.
‘Shiv Sena Balasaheb Thackeray’ is the first choice for the name and ‘Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ is the second pick, they said. It has asked for trishul (trident) as its first choice of symbol, and rising sun as the second option. For the party symbol, it has given ‘mashaal’ as the third choice.
Both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde are meeting party leaders today. The former held the meeting at 12 pm and the latter will do so at 7 pm.
The Shinde faction is, on its part, hoopeful of getting ‘justice’ and control over the party symbol as well. “We have all the documents and we have a majority. We will get justice & the symbol as well,” said Deepak Kesarkar, a minister in the Shinde government.
In an interim order over the claims by the rival factions for control of the organisation, the commission on Saturday asked them to suggest by Monday three different name choices and also as many free symbols for allocation to their respective groups.
The interim order came on Saturday on the Shinde faction’s request seeking it be allocated the symbol as the Andheri East assembly bypoll is approaching.
The rival factions had approached the Commission after the split in the Shiv Sena ranks in June, claiming to be the ‘real Shiv Sena’.
The Commission had earlier asked the rival groups to submit documentary proof on legislative and organisational support by August 8 to back their claims.
The deadline was extended to October 7 after the request of the Thackeray faction. On October 4, the Shinde faction had moved the Election Commission seeking the allocation of the bow and arrow poll symbol in view of the Andheri East assembly by-election that was notified on Friday.
The Thackeray faction had submitted its response to the claim on Saturday and had sought four more weeks to carefully understand the documentation submitted by the rival faction.
The Commission said the interim order was necessary to address the statutory spaces generated by the schedule of bye-elections notified on October 3.
Accordingly, in order to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests, and going by precedence, the Commission said neither of the two groups be permitted to use the name of the party Shiv Sena.
The Commission has directed both the groups to furnish, latest by 1:00 PM on October 10, choices of names and symbols for their groups which may be allotted to them.
The EC said the interim order will continue and “till the final determination of the dispute”. The last date for filing nominations for the November 3 bypoll is October 14.
The fresh claim to the ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol by the Shinde faction is seen as an attempt to deny its use by the Thackeray group which has decided to field Rutuja Latke, the widow of MLA Ramesh Latke, for the bypoll.
The BJP, an ally of the Shinde faction, has decided to field Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, for the bypoll necessitated due to the death of Ramesh Latke.
The Congress and the NCP have decided to support the candidate of the Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, their coalition partner in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
The interim order was issued after the Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar net this afternoon.
Shinde had raised a banner of revolt against Thackeray, accusing him of entering into an “unnatural alliance” with the Congress and NCP. Over 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs had supported Shinde, forcing the resignation of Thackeray from the post of Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Twelve of the 18 Lok Sabha members of the Shiv Sena also came out in support of Shinde, who later claimed to be the leader of the original Shiv Sena.
The Andheri East bypoll is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June, and is considered by political analysts as a precursor to settling of claims by Shinde and Thackeray to be the “real Shiv Sena”.