New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday ordered that the faction of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will retain the party name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the symbol of ‘Bow and Arrow’.
Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.
ECI observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is 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.
In the order, ECI observed that the constitution of Shiv Sena amended in 2018 is not given to the Election Commission of India. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by the Late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission.
The order further stated that the undemocratic norms of the original Constitution of Shiv Sena, which was not accepted by the Commission in 1999 have been brought back in a surreptitious manner further making the party akin to a fiefdom.
ECI further advised all political 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.
Further, as against 90,49,789, total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the General election to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra in 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 40 MLAs supporting the Shinde faction come to ~40 per cent whereas votes polled by 15 MLAs supporting the Uddhav Thakeray faction come to ~12 percent of total votes, the Commission said.
“The 13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction garnered 74,88,634 votes out of a total of 1,02,45143 votes i.e ~73 percent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs in the general election to the Lok Sabha, 2019. This contrasts with 27,56,509 votes garnered by 5 MPs supporting the Uddhav Thakeray faction (although claimed 6 and affidavits filed by only 4) i.e ~ 27 per cent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs,” the Commission further stated.
Earlier, both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written 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 the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.
(With Agency Inputs)
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