Shiv Sena legislative party office at Vidhan Bhavan belongs to us: Shinde faction leader

Shinde faction leader Bharat Gogawale said, 'we have given a notice to the Speaker. We are following the orders of ECI. We will take a call on how to proceed further'

The chief whip of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) Bharat Gogawale with other MLAs reached Vidhan Bhavan on Monday and gave notice to the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly Rahul Narvekar asking for the handover of the Shiv Sena legislative party office at Vidhan Bhavan.

Bharat Gogawale said that the office at Vidhan Bhavan belonged to the Shinde faction after the ECI order.

"We have given a notice to the Speaker. We are following the orders of ECI. We will take a call on how to proceed further. Since ECI has recognised us as Shiv Sena, so this office belongs to us now," he said.

Election Commission of India (ECI) on February 17 allotted the party name "Shiv Sena" and the symbol "Bow and Arrow" to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.

While the Shinde faction welcomed the decision of being recognized as the real Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction said they would move the Supreme Court.

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The Uddhav Thackeray faction accused the Election Commission of haste and said the decision shows "it works as BJP agent".

The Commission observed in its order that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been "mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all". It said such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

Calling the poll panel's decision as "murder of democracy", Uddhav Thackeray said he will approach the Supreme Court against the decision.

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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