Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 20: Cornered by the Election Commission’s decision to allot the party name and the symbol to the rival Shinde faction, the former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday demanded disbanding the ECI and have an elected body in its place even as he chalked out plans to start activities to keep the morale of the Shiv Sainiks high.
The Shiv Sena has a large network of camps across the state, which Mr Thackeray will contact afresh to start a “Shiv Shakti Abhiyan,” an exercise to strengthen the party’s workers on the ground.
This activity, apart from going to the Supreme Court, is among Mr Thackeray’s first steps to consolidate whatever is left of the Shiv Sena with him after the Election Commission held that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s group has the right to use the Shiv Sena name and the party’s bow-and-arrow election symbol. For now, Mr Thackeray reluctantly keeps the name “Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray” and the “flaming torch” symbol.
The website of Shiv Sena was on Monday deleted and the name on its official Twitter account changed, days after the Eknath Shinde camp was declared as the real Shiv Sena and got the party’s ‘Bow-and-Arrow’ symbol. The website of Shiv Sena with its domain name has been deleted and its Twitter handle name has been changed to “ShivSena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray,” the name allowed the faction to keep. The Twitter handle, however, has now lost its ‘blue tick’ that indicates a verified account on the micro-blogging platform.
Uddhav Thackeray called for the dissolution of the EC and demanded that the election commissioners should not be appointed directly by the government but instead should be elected.
“The EC should be dissolved immediately. The election commissioner should be appointed after holding elections. In our country, everyone has to get elected. But why is the election commissioner appointed by the government by their whims and fancies? Even justices are elected. There should be a system in place for appointing the election commissioner,” Uddhav said.
Uddhav announced that his faction has approached the Supreme Court against the EC order and the hearing on the disqualification plea will be heard by the court from Tuesday.
The Supreme Court had earlier on the day refused to entertain an oral mentioning made by the Uddhav Thackeray camp to urgently list it on Tuesday their plea challenging the ECI decision allocating the party name and symbol “bow and arrow” to the Shinde faction.
Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud asked senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the Thackeray camp, to mention his case after listing it like the others. The case was not part of the mentioning list on Monday. Mr. Singhvi had sought the court’s indulgence after the mentioning list was over and the regular board was about to begin. “Let the matter be kept tomorrow,” he urged the CJI. “Mr. Singhvi, Everything has to be done in an uniform manner. Come in the list tomorrow,” the CJI said, refusing Mr. Singhvi his chance.
The Supreme Court is yet to give its verdict on a request by Team Thackeray to disqualify 16 Sena MLAs among the ones who revolted against him last year, yet the Election Commission’s order on the party name and symbol came, which is “unfair”, the former Chief Minister said on Friday last when the election body announced its decision.
Commenting on the claims of the Shinde faction over party properties and the funds after the EC decision, Uddhav said, “The EC has a right to only give a decision on the party name and symbol. Apart from that it does not have a right to give a decision on anything, be it party’s properties or funds. If the EC gives any such order, we will sue the EC,” Uddhav said.
He further said that the EC decision does not have a bearing on anything else apart from the party name and poll symbol. “EC cannot dictate who will get what. It is not their prerogative. Their prerogative is only to hold elections in the country, allot party poll symbol, and check if there is a democracy in the internal structure of political parties,” Uddhav said. He further said that if this current scenario in the county continues, then the 2024 Lok Sabha elections may turn out to be the last elections in the country. “After that, anarchy will start,” Uddhav said.
“It is the most difficult time for Shiv Sena. It is the same as when Balasaheb Thackeray died. We will fight back in the court and on the streets. We are working on strategies. They (Team Eknath Shinde) are trying to finish the Shiv Sena by giving supari (contract),” Mr Thackeray told reporters at the Sena Bhavan in Mumbai on Monday. “The Shiv Sena won’t lick the BJP’s feet,” said Mr Thackeray, whose father Bal Thackeray founded the Shiv Sena.
He has also invited Sena district leaders loyal to him to discuss plans for taking on Team Eknath Shinde. Sena leaders close to Mr Thackeray including Sanjay Raut, Subhash Desai, Anil Desai and Anil Parab attended the meeting.
Mr Shinde called the Election Commission’s decision to recognise his faction as the real Shiv Sena a victory of truth and people. He said numbers matter in a democracy and he has them. “This is a victory of truth and people as well as blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray. I thank Election Commission. Majority counts in democracy,” Mr Shinde said.
In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the 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 Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76% of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.