The Election Commission on Tuesday asked the two factions of the Shiv Sena, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, to submit documents by November 23 in order to claim the party’s name and symbol, The Hindu reported.
The poll body said it will assign a date for a hearing once the documents are submitted.
The development came after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected Thackeray’s plea against an interim order of the Election Commission to freeze the claims to the “Shiv Sena” party name and the “bow and arrow” symbol, reported The Indian Express.
The High Court also asked directed the Election Commission to decide on the matter in an “expeditious manner”.
The Shiv Sena split into two factions in June after Shinde and a group of party MLAs rebelled against the former state 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 Uddhav 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 Bharatiya Janata Party’s Devendra Fadnavis took oath as his deputy.
Since then, the two factions have been fighting over the right the be recognised as the real Shiv Sena and have staked claims to use the name and the bow and arrow symbol of the party.
On October 10, the Election Commission had allotted the flaming torch symbol to the Thackeray-led faction and recognised it as Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). A day later, the poll body assigned the “two swords and shield” symbol to the faction of the Shiv Sena led by Shinde and said that the group will be known by the name Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena.
At Tuesday’s hearing at the Delhi High Court, Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of Thackeray, argued that the Election Commission cannot assume that there are two factions of the same party.
“Petition before the commission has only been filed by Eknath Shinde,” Sibal argued, according to The Indian Express. “The Election Commission cannot assume that he is a part of the Shiv Sena. That is yet to be considered.”
Meanwhile, counsel Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Shinde, alleged that Thackeray does not intend to resolve the matter. “You [Thackeray] don’t want expeditious disposal because you want the symbol to remain in jeopardy,” he argued.
Hearing on Lok Janshakti Party symbol on November 29
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Election Commission also said that it will hear the two warring factions of the Lok Janshakti Party on November 29. One faction is led by Chirag Paswan while the other is headed by Paswan’s uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras.
Paswan and Paras have been locked in a tussle over the party’s leadership since June. In October last year, the Election Commission had frozen the Lok Janshakti Party symbol – a bungalow – ahead of bye-polls to two Assembly seats in Bihar.
Earlier, the poll body had allotted the name Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the election symbol “helicopter” to Paswan. The faction led by Paras got the name Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party and the “sewing machine” symbol.
In June, the Lok Janshakti Party had plunged into a crisis after five of its six Lok Sabha MPs rebelled against Paswan. The rebel MPs had told Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they have chosen Paras as the party’s leader in Parliament.
The development, effectively a coup against Paswan, came less than a year after his father and former Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan died in October 2020. He was the founder of the Lok Janshakti Party.
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