A day after the Election Commission froze the Shiv Sena’s party symbol, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction on Sunday submitted alternatives to the poll panel for its consideration, The Times of India reported.
The three proposed symbols are “trishul” or trident, “mashaal” or burning torch and “rising sun”.
Arvind Sawant, an MP from the Thackeray-led faction, also said that the party has proposed three names – Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray), Shiv Sena (Prabodhankar Thackeray) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) – for the outfit.
On Saturday, the Election Commission had issued an interim order freezing the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena as factions led by Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde claim to be the “real” party. The directive was issued in view of the upcoming bye-polls for Andheri (East) Assembly on November 3.
The order came after the Supreme Court had on September 27 refused to stop the poll body from deciding on Shinde’s plea seeking that his faction be recognised as the “real” Shiv Sena.
The Election Commission noted in its order that a deeper examination of the claims and documentary evidence submitted by both the factions would require time. Hence, the decision was taken to not let both the sides use the symbol as well as the party name for the bye-polls till the Election Commission passes a final order on the dispute between them.
The order issued on Saturday said that the two factions will have to now choose new names and would be allotted alternate symbols from a list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission.
The two sides have been asked to submit the alternate names and symbols to the poll body by 1 pm on October 10.
“The commission is duty bound to ensure that all electoral steps of the bye-elections are free of any confusion and contradiction and thus its next step are necessarily agnostic to the possibility of either of the faction participating in the poll,” said the interim order signed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey.
Aaditya Thackeray, former Maharashtra minister and son of Uddhav Thackeray, blamed the Shinde faction’s betrayal for the order.
“Traitors who got crores have done the vile and shameless act of getting the name and symbol of Shiv Sena frozen,” Aaditya Thackeray wrote in a tweet. “People of Maharashtra will not tolerate this. We will fight and win. We are on the side of truth. Truth only wins.”
School education minister Deepak Kesarkar, who is also the Shinde camp’s spokesperson, welcomed the Election Commission’s decision, The Indian Express reported. “We are confident that in the long run we will be getting the bow and arrow symbol as we are the real Shiv Sena,” he said.
Andheri East has significant Marathi-speaking voters and the result of the bye-polls is being seen as a litmus test for Uddhav Thackeray to prove his strength ahead of the elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, India’s richest civic body.
Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke’s death in May necessitated the Andheri bye-polls. The Thackeray faction has fielded Latke’s wife Rutuja. She will contest against Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Murji Patel.
The Sena versus Sena battle
Chaos had ensued in the Shiv Sena in June after Shinde and a group of party MLAs rebelled against the former Maharashtra government – a coalition of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
After more than a week of political drama, the coalition was ousted from power as the Thackeray faction was reduced to a minority in the state Assembly. Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister of Maharashtra on June 30, while the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as his deputy.
Both, Thackeray and Shinde have since then staked claim for the exclusive use of the name and the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena.
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