New Delhi: In a big blow to Uddhav Thackeray, the Election Commission on Friday allotted the name Shiv Sena' and its poll symbol bow and arrow' to the group led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
In a unanimous order on the six-month-old petition filed by Shinde, the three-member Commission allowed the Thackeray faction to retain the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the flaming torch' poll symbol, given to it in an interim order last year, till the conclusion of ongoing assembly bypolls in the state.
Shinde described the EC verdict as a "victory of truth and people as well as blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray" while Sanjay Raut, who is with Thackeray, said the Commission decision to recognise the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena was a "murder of democracy" and his party will "go to the people."
This is for the first time the Thackeray family has lost control of the party founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray on the principles of justice for the sons of the soil.
Later, the party adopted Hindutva as its key ideology and partnered with BJP till 2019 when Uddhav Thackeray broke the alliance to form the government with the help of the NCP and the Congress. Shinde broke ranks with Thackeray in June last year and formed the government in alliance with the BJP.
"The party name 'Shiv Sena' and the party symbol 'Bow and arrow' will be retained by the petitioner faction," the Commission said in the 78-page order.
It said the name of "Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena" and symbol of "Two swords and Shield", allotted to the Shinde faction in October last year, will now be frozen with immediate effect and will not be used.
The Commission said it applied the principles of the 'Test of party Constitution' and the 'Test of Majority' while finalising the order.
The Commission said MLAs backing Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.
The Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, it added.
The Commission said the respondent (Thackeray faction) had relied heavily on the 2018 Constitution of the party to stake claim to the poll symbol and the organisation but the party had not informed the Commission about the amendment to the Constitution.
"The amended Constitution of 2018 is not on record of the Commission," the order said, and added that it found that the party Constitution, on which the Thackeray faction was placing strong reliance, to be "undemocratic".
"To put it in a nutshell, the party Constitution envisages the President nominating the Electoral College that is to elect him. This goes against the spirit of democracy and negates the very purpose for which the entire exercise was carried out," the Commission said.
It noted that the 2018 amendments had "undone the act of introducing democratic norms" in the party constitution of 1999 and the functioning of Shiv Sena, brought by Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission.
Uddhav calls EC decision dangerous for democracy
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the Election Commission's order recognising Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena was "dangerous for democracy", and he would challenge it in the Supreme Court.
Speaking at a press conference hours after the EC decision, Thackeray accused the poll panel of having become the Union government's slave. "It may even take away our symbol of flaming torch tomorrow," he said.
He also appealed to his followers not to give up, and fight the battle to win. The party and people were with him, he said.
''Let the thieves rejoice for a few days," he said, reacting to the setback to his faction. The Supreme Court is the last hope to ensure that democracy is alive in the country, Thackeray said. If this hope vanished, we should stop holding elections forever and become a one-man rule, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should announce that after 75 years of independence the country was not a democracy any longer but moving towards tyranny, he added.
"Those who think they have got state recognition for their theft will always remain thieves,'' Thackeray said, referring to rebel Sena MLAs led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde. He also accused Shinde of stealing party founder Balasaheb Thackeray's photo, party and symbol, adding that he will not be able to "digest this theft for long".
