Mumbai:
Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has challenged in Supreme Court the Election Commission’s decision to award the Shiv Sena name and symbol to his rival and successor Eknath Shinde.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud for an early listing of the Thackeray-led Sena faction’s request.
The CJI, however, refused to pass any order.
“The rule applies equally to all, whether left, right or centre. Come tomorrow through proper process,” the bench said.
The election commission recognised the faction led by Mr Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allotted them the “bow and arrow” poll symbol. The ruling is a blow to the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray, whose father Bal Thackeray founded the party in 1966.
In June last year, Mr Shinde had mounted a rebellion, flying away with over 40 Sena MLAs with the help of the BJP, and triggering the eventual ouster of Mr Thackeray’s government that included two ideologically disparate allies in the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
In its 78-page order, the Election Commission allowed the 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 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 Uddhav Thackeray faction’s MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes.
