Uddhav Thackeray faction calls EC order on Shiv Sena symbol 'injustice'; Eknath Shinde group says 'right decision'

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday (October 8, 2022) barred the Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol in the upcoming Andheri East assembly bypoll. In an interim order over the claims by the rival factions for control of the organisation, the EC asked them to suggest by Monday three different name choices and also as many free symbols for allocation to their respective groups. Reacting to the Commission's order, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction called it an 'injustice', while the Shinde group termed it a "right decision".

"Khokewale traitors committed this shameless and vile act of freezing the name Shiv Sena and symbol," Shiv Sena leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said, adding that the people of Maharashtra would not tolerate it.

"We will fight and win. We are on the side of the truth. Satyamev Jayate!" he said in a tweet in Marathi.

Aaditya and other leaders of the Uddhav Thackeray faction have been accusing the rebels led by Shinde of committing treachery for the lure of "khoke" (boxes of cash).

Ambadas Danve, the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Council and a Thackeray loyalist, said that the poll body should have holistically taken a decision rather than passing an interim decision for the bypoll.

"This is injustice," he told the news agency PTI.

Chandrakant Khaire, a former MP and another leader from the Thackeray camp, attacked the rival faction led by Shinde and said whoever has done this cannot undo the "sin" they have committed.

On the other hand, Prataprao Jadhav, an MP from the Shinde camp, said that the EC has taken the "right decision".

Uddhav Thackeray discarded the ideology of Sena founder Bal Thackeray and formed an alliance with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, he said.

The interim order came on Saturday on the Shinde faction's request seeking it be allocated the symbol as the Andheri East assembly bypoll is approaching.

"The Commission is duty bound to ensure that all electoral steps of the bye-election are free of any confusion and contradiction and thus its next step is necessarily agnostic to the possibility of either of the faction participating in the poll," the interim order said.

The rival factions had approached the Commission after the split in the Shiv Sena ranks in June, claiming to be the 'real Shiv Sena'.

Andheri East bypoll is Uddhav Thackeray's first electoral test after split in Shiv Sena

It is notable that the November 3 bypoll to the Andheri East constituency in suburban Mumbai is the first electoral test for the Uddhav Thackeray group after the split in Shiv Sena in June this year, leading to the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

The upcoming contest is between the Thackeray-led faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the Shinde faction is not contesting.

The BJP, an ally of the Shinde faction, has decided to field Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, for the bypoll necessitated due to the death of incumbent Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.

The Congress and the NCP have decided to support the late Latke's wife Rujuta Latke, the candidate of the Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, their coalition partner in the MVA.

(With agency inputs)