Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena moves SC against EC decision, court tells it to mention matter tomorrow

Uddhav Thackeray. File Pic

The Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Election Commission recognising the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordering allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

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 petition.

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.

Also Read: Uddhav Thackeray to convene key meeting of MLAs in Mumbai amid symbol row

The Election Commission on Friday had recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered the allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly by-polls 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 polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said.

Last month, 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.

However, exuding confidence in winning the election with the 'torch' symbol, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday challenged Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde to contest the election with the "stolen bow and arrow", stating that the 'battle has begun'.

He further said that the thieves were given the holy "bow and arrow" and that this is their test.

"Thieves were given the holy 'bow and arrow', similarly the 'torch' (mashaal) can be taken away. I challenge them - if they are men, come in front of us even with the stolen 'bow and arrow', we will contest the election with the 'torch'. This is our test, the battle has begun," Thackeray said.

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