Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 8: In a huge setback to Team Thackeray, the Election Commission has decided to freeze the Shiv Sena name and the party’s “bow and arrow” symbol “till further notice.”
The ECI on Saturday announced that neither of the Shiv Sena factions, one led by the former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the other led by the incumbent chief minister Eknath Shinde, will be able to use the party’s name and its ‘bow and arrow’ symbol for the time being, particularly in the Andheri East state Assembly by-elections to be held on November 3.
The decision comes four months after Eknath Shinde took away the Shiv Sena numbers in the Maharashtra assembly to replace Uddhav Thackeray as Chief Minister. As per the poll body’s interim order, both groups will now have to choose new names. They shall be allotted different symbols, which they may choose from the list of free symbols available.
The order is a huge setback for the Uddhav Thackeray faction, which will now have to use a different name and symbol in the upcoming bye-election in Mumbai’s Andheri East. The Eknath Shinde group will not be contesting in the Andheri East bypoll and is supporting the BJP candidate. Thackeray group has nominated the widow of its sitting MLA whose death has caused the byelection.
Since the split in June, both factions have been accusing the other of tainting Bal Thackeray’s legacy. At the big Dussehra meeting this week, Mr Shinde said: “Do you have any moral right to even stand and speak there? You used Shiv Sainiks for your personal reason and went ahead with Congress and NCP… Balasaheb Thackeray used to run the government on remote control and you gave this remote control to NCP.” Mr Thackeray, who held another rally at the traditional venue of Shivaji Park, alleged that Mr Shinde was a “traitor” who is attempting to control the party out of “greed.”
The Team Thackeray had earlier suffered setback in the Supreme Court when last month it refused to stay proceedings before the Election Commission to decide on the allocation of the “bow and arrow” symbol to the “real” Sena faction, though the apex court itself is seized with the matter in view of several constitutional issues involved under the anti-defection act.