'Uddhav Thackeray's political ambition...'Athawale backs Shinde faction in symbol war

Ramdas Athawale. File pic

Amid the row over symbol between the two rival factions of Shiv Sena, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Sunday came out in support of the Shinde camp saying the Election Commission (EC) should give the 'Bow and Arrow' symbol to the rebel group while taking the final call over the matter.

Speaking to ANI, Athawale said, "The symbol of Shiv Sena has been frozen for the Assembly bye-election of Andheri east. After that, I feel that Eknath Shinde group should definitely get the symbol of Shiv Sena's 'Bow and Arrow'. Election Commission has to decide on the basis of merit and when the decision will be taken later. Eknath Shinde will definitely get the symbol of Shiv Sena."

Also read: Uddhav-led Sena's choices for poll symbol - trident, rising sun or burning torch

Union Minister said that Uddhav Thackeray's political ambition is responsible for freezing the symbol of the party."Uddhav Thackeray ji is responsible for the freeze of Shiv Sena's symbol because he had formed the government with NCP and Congress by betraying the BJP and became the Chief Minister. In the run for chief ministership, he had done a lot of damage to his party and now ended up facing a ban on using the party's original symbol.

"Athawale also objected to Shiv Sena's demand for 'rising sun' as party's symbol in the upcoming bypolls.

He said that 'Rising Sun' was earlier the Republican Party of India's (RPI) symbol so this should not be alloted to the Thackeray group.

"Arvind Sawant, who is the MP of the Thackeray faction, has given three symbol options to the Election Commission, in which Trishul, Mashaal (torch) and Rising Sun are there. Trishul and Mashaal are fine but the 'Rising Sun' should not be given to the Uddhav Thackeray group because it was the symbol of RPI. We are going to write to the Election Commission about the matter," the Union Minister added.

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