Maharashtra: Dissolve poll body, says Uddhav Thackeray

Former CM Uddhav Thackeray displays mid-day’s cartoon during his press conference on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Uddhav Thackeray on Monday demanded the dissolution of the Election Commission of India (ECI), whose order unseated him from the Shiv Sena throne, and alleged a conspiracy in the allocation of the party name and symbol to the Eknath Shinde-led rebel faction. "The ECI's decision is wrong," he said, after his lawyers moved the Supreme Court against the poll body. "Servants have been appointed on the commission which should be dissolved."

Shinde group members with chief whip Bharat Gogavale (seated) at the Vidhan Bhavan office that the ECI-recognised party claimed on Monday from the Thackeray faction

Thackeray said a controversial election commissioner was hastily appointed after the rift emerged in the Sena, and wondered whether the decision was taken to complicate the matter. He said the ECI's ruling over the Sena rift was different from its orders in other similar cases. He wanted to know whether the documents submitted by his faction were taken into consideration. He hoped for justice from the SC, but didn't deny the possibility of political interference there too.

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Brandishing a mid-day cartoon to emphasise how he was robbed of the party name and symbol, Thackeray said his detractors can't steal the fact that he was lucky to be the son of (the late Balasaheb and Meena) Thackeray. "They cannot steal my luck or take it to Delhi," he said.

He predicted that the next Lok Sabha polls could be Narendra Modi's last, after which his detractors would run amok. "Better to be awake before it's too late. Now it is time all stood united," he said, adding that senior opposition leaders Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar had called him to discuss the issue.