The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena on Thursday wrote a 12-point letter to the Election Commission, alleging bias in the allocation of party symbols and name in favour of the rival group led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, ANI reported.
On Tuesday, the Election Commission allotted the “two swords and shield” symbol to the faction of the Shiv Sena led by Shinde and said the group will be known by the name Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena. A day earlier, the poll body alloted the flaming torch (mashaal) symbol to the Thackeray-led faction and recognised it as Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
The two groups of the Shiv Sena were issued an interim order by the poll body on October 8 that barred them from using the party name and its “bow and arrow” symbol for the Andheri East Assembly bye-election on November 3.
Following the interim order, the two groups were asked to choose new names and alternate symbols from a list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission. The two sides were asked to submit the alternate names and symbols to the poll body by 1 pm on October 10.
In his letter, Thackeray alleged that the Election Commission shared “privileged communication” by uploading his group’s choice of names and symbols on the website possibly even before Shinde had submitted his own list, reported NDTV. The letter also stated that the Election Commission later deleted the choices submitted by the Thackeray faction from its website and never uploaded Shinde group’s preference of symbols and party names.
Thackeray alleged that this move allowed the Shinde faction to copy the choices that they had suggested.
The Shinde-led faction had submitted three symbols – peepul tree, shining sun and shield as well as two swords – to the poll body for consideration on Tuesday. The poll panel had earlier rejected the Maharashtra chief minister’s options of “trishul [trident]”, “gada [mace]” and “rising sun” for symbol.
The preference was submitted to the Election Commission after Thackeray’s group had proposed “trishul”, “mashaal” and “rising sun”. The three names proposed by the group were Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray), Shiv Sena (Prabodhankar Thackeray) and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
In Thursday’s letter, the Thackeray faction alleged that Shinde “very tellingly” gave the same first choice of name, and the same first and second choice of symbol as theirs which effectively precluded them being allotted these options.
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.
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