In a setback for Uddhav Thackeray, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday today ordered that the party name "Shiv Sena" and the party symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction.

The Election Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 percent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 percent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order.

The Election Commission observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav faction) is undemocratic. It said the party has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. "Such party structures fail to inspire confidence."

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Further, the Election Commission observed that the constitution of Shiv Sena amended in 2018 is not given to the Election Commission of India. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by the late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission.

Shinde described the EC verdict as a "victory of truth and people as well as blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray" while Sanjay Raut, who is with Thackeray, said the Commission decision to recognise the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena was a "murder of democracy" and his party will "go to the people."

This is for the first time the Thackeray family has lost control of the party founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray on the principles of justice for the sons of the soil.

Uddhav Thackeray faction spokesperson, Anand Dubey, said, "The order is what we had suspected. We had been saying that we don't trust the EC. When the matter is sub-judice before SC and no final decision has been taken, this haste by EC shows it works as a BJP agent under Central Govt. We condemn this."

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Last year, the Election Commission has barred the Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol in the Andheri East assembly bypoll.

However, Election Commission had allotted the name 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena' to the Eknath Shinde faction and 'Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’ to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction for the Andheri East assembly by-poll slated for November 3.

The apex poll panel allotted the flaming torch as the party symbol for the Thackeray faction but has yet to allot a symbol to the Shinde faction. Instead, the ECI asked Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena to submit a fresh list of symbols.

Shinde had raised the banner of revolt against Thackeray, accusing him of entering into an "unnatural alliance" with Congress and NCP. Over 40 of the Shiv Sena's 55 MLAs had supported Shinde, forcing the resignation of Thackeray as Maharashtra CM.

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Following Thackeray's resignation as chief minister of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress coalition, Shinde became chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party in June.

(Edited by : Pradeep John)

First Published:Feb 17, 2023 7:06 PM IST