The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a petition filed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray challenging the Election Commission’s decision to recognise the faction led by his rival and successor Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena, Bar and Bench reported.
The petition was mentioned before Chief Justice DY Chandrachud for an urgent hearing by senior advocate Kapil Sibal.
The advocate sought a stay on the poll body’s order of February 17, saying that the Shinde camp was taking over the offices and bank accounts of the Shiv Sena, according to Live Law. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has allotted the Shiv Sena office in Parliament House to the Shinde faction.
The court, however, said that it needs to go through the case files and listed the matter for hearing at 3.30 pm on Wednesday.
The Shiv Sena split in June last year after Shinde led a rebellion by a group of legislators against Thackeray’s leadership, precipitating the collapse of the previous Maharashtra government, run in coalition by the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The two factions led by Thackeray and Shinde had then approached the poll body, seeking to be recognised as the real Shiv Sena.
Last week, the Election Commission allocated the party name and coveted bow and arrow symbol to Shinde’s faction, in a blow to the former Maharashtra chief minister, whose father Bal Thackeray founded the outfit in 1966.
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Explained: How the Election Commission recognised Eknath Shinde’s faction as the real Shiv Sena
In its 78-page order, the Election Commission said that 40 MLAs backing Shinde got nearly 76% of the votes polled in favour of the 55 Shiv Sena candidates who had won their seats in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. On the other hand, the Uddhav Thackeray faction’s 15 MLAs got 23.5% of the votes polled, the poll body said in a unanimous order.
Thackeray, who was allocated the symbol of a flaming torch last year, said the poll panel was acting like a slave of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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