EC Recognises Eknath Shinde Faction As Real Shiv Sena, Allocates 'Bow And Arrow' Poll Symbol To It
Shiv Sena Party: Election Commission recognised Eknath Shinde faction as real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of 'bow and arrow' poll symbol to it.
The Election Commission on Friday allocated the party name "Shiv Sena" and poll symbol "bow and arrow" to the Eknath Shinde faction. In its ruling, the EC noted that MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of 55 wining Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order.
The Shiv Sena split into two factions after Shinde revolted against Uddhav Thackeray last year, leading to the collapse of the MVA government. Shinde then went on to form the government with BJP's support and was made the Chief Minister. More than 40 of the Shiv Sena's 55 MLAs backed Shinde, forcing Thackeray to resign as Maharashtra Chief Minister.
Since then, both Shinde and Uddhav factions have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party.
In a 78-page order, the Election Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly bypolls in the state.
The Election Commission observed that the current Constitution of the Shiv Sena was undemocratic. "It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence," the poll watchdog said in a statement.
READ | ECI Passes Interim Order To Freeze 'Shiv Sena Symbol' Amid Thackeray-Shinde Tussle
The EC observed that the Constitution of Shiv Sena amended in 2018 was not given to the poll watchdog. The amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the party Constitution of 1999, brought by late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the commission.
The EC also said the undemocratic norms of the original Constitution of Shiv Sena, which was not accepted by the commission in 1999, were brought back "in a surreptitious manner" further making the party akin to a fiefdom.
The ECI also advised all parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and regularly disclose on their respective websites aspects of their inner party functioning, such as organisational details, holding of elections, the copy of Constitution and list of office bearers.
"The constitution of political parties ought to provide for free, fair and transparent elections to the posts of office bearers and a further free and fair procedure for the resolution of internal disputes. These procedures ought to be difficult to amend and should be amendable only after ensuring larger support of the organisational members for the same," the ECI further said.
Last month, both CM Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray submitted their statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.
The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted "two swords and shield" to the Eknath Shinde faction and "flaming torch" (mashaal) symbol to the Thackeray camp for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
Top Headlines
Trending News
