After the Election Commission of India (ECI) setback, former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the Eknath Shinde faction has stolen the bow and arrow symbol and people will avenge this theft.

The ECI had allotted the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and its poll symbol ‘bow and arrow’ to the party's faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Also, the three-member Commission allowed the Thackeray faction to retain the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the ‘flaming torch’ poll symbol, given to it in an interim order last year.

During the press conference at his Matoshree bungalow in Mumbai, Thackeray questioned why the ECI has given the decision before the Supreme Court verdict. "If the party's existence is decided based on the number of MLAs and MPs, any capitalist can purchase MLA, or MP and become chief minister."

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Claiming that there was no democracy left in India, Thackeray said PM Narendra Modi should declare that dictatorship has started in the country and described ECI's decision to recognise the Eknath Shinde faction as real Shiv Sena as dangerous.

“We will challenge in Supreme Court poll panel's decision to recognise Eknath Shinde faction as real Shiv Sena,” he said. The EC decision indicates that the Mumbai municipal corporation elections will be declared soon, he added.

The Commission said it applied the principles of the 'Test of Party Constitution' and the 'Test of Majority' while finalising the order. The Commission said MLAs backing Shinde got nearly 76 percent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 percent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, it added.

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The Commission said the respondent (Thackeray faction) had relied heavily on the 2018 Constitution of the party to stake claim to the poll symbol and the organisation but the party had not informed the Commission about the amendment to the Constitution.

"The amended Constitution of 2018 is not on record of the Commission," the order said, and added that it found the party Constitution, on which the Thackeray faction was placing strong reliance, to be "undemocratic".

(Edited by : Pradeep John)