Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Uddhav to move SC over ECI verdict
CM Shinde terms ECI decision a ‘victory of truth’ while Thackeray calls it ‘murder of democracy’
MUMBAI: Hours after the Election Commission of India’s decision to allot the party name Shiv Sena and the symbol of the bow and arrow to the Eknath Shinde faction, Uddhav Thackeray announced that he will be appealing the decision in the Supreme Court.
He termed the decision as “murder of democracy” and accused the ECI of working as a slave to the ruling party. “It made us submit piles of documents, but gave the verdict regardless of that, the way it anyway wanted to.” He said he would not be surprised if local body elections were to be called in the next month or two.
In contrast to the subdued mood at Matoshree, the Thackeray family residence at Bandra East, the mood at Varsha, the CM’s official bungalow, was sanguine. There were loud proShinde chants and much cracker-bursting. Similarly, in Thane, his pocket borough, Shrikant Shinde, his son and Member of Parliament, raised aloft a huge bow and arrow amid a sea of jubilant supporters.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who late night visited Bal Thackeray’s samadhi called the EC’s decision a victory of Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe’s ideology. “This is a case where the truth has won. This is a victory for democracy. Our country runs as per constitution. Our government is constitutional. This decision is done on merit and I thank the Election Commission.”
Uddhav Thackeray on the other hand reserved his last salvo for Shinde and other rebels calling them “a bunch of thieves.” He expressed fears that the government was dismantling the guardrails of democracy and added that he now worried whether they would be allowed to retain the flaming torch symbol allots to him some time back.
Thackeray’s partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, the NCP and the Congress cam out n his support. NCP leader and MP Supriya Sule said that she was shocked and unable to understand the grounds on which the decision was taken by the EC. “I have been looking up to the election commission as an autonomous transparent body. But in this case, I am unable to understand on what basis they have come to this conclusion,” she said.
“The Shiv Sena was formed by Balasaheb Thackeray and during his lifetime it was decided that Uddhav Thackeray will be his successor and the decision was taken unanimously. Even Raj Thackeray respected that decision and formed his own party when he decided to leave Shiv Sena,” she pointed out.
The Maharashtra Congress said Friday’s decision had cast suspicions over the EC’s stature as an independent body.
“It has made the matter more complicated because the national and state executive committees are still with Uddhav Thackeray. In that case, on what grounds any new executive
The Election Commission has ordered the allocation of the name “Shiv Sena” and "bow and arrow" poll symbol to the Shinde’s camp.
The three factors that EC considered: body formed by Shinde can be approved?” asked Atul Londhe, chief spokesperson, Congress.
Deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said, “We were confident from day one that the symbol and name of the party will go to the faction which has been taking the ideology of the Balasaheb Thackeray forward. We have been saying this from day 1 that the faction headed by chief minister Eknath Shinde is the original party and no one should treat the party their own property. The EC’s decision has only reinforced what we said.”
He added the EC’s decision had been on the lines of its past decisions when such disputes arose in other parties. “Such rulings are based on the vote percentage, the number of elected representatives any faction has among other parameters.”
The original Sena rebel and Thackeray’s cousin Raj put out a cryptic tweet featuring a Bal Thackeray video in which the Shiv Sena founder can be heard saying,” Money comes and goes but when a person loses his reputation, it can’t be got back, it can’t be bought even in the black market. Therefore one must take care of one’s reputation and enhance it.” the Supreme Court.
The order comes weeks before two bellwether assembly bypolls in Chinchwad and Kasba Peth, and the Mumbai municipal polls scheduled later this year.
ECI followed the procedure laid down in a 1971 Supreme Court judgment, which says such cases must be decided on the basis of a triple test. ECI found that the conclusion of the first two benchmarks were inconclusive. The first test — objectives of the party constitution — was deemed improper because the 2018 constitution of the Shiv Sena was found to be undemocratic and concentrated power in the hands of a few. The second test — that of the majority in the organisational body of the party — was also not considered because the poll panel found that neither side provided accurate details of the composition of internal bodies, and no determinable or satisfactory findings could be ascertained. Therefore, ECI relied on the third prong — the test of majority in the legislative wing. Here, the poll body found that 40 of the 55 members of legislative assembly backed the Shinde faction, which translated to 76% of the total votes polled by the unified party in the 2019 assembly elections. Moreover, 13 of the 18 Lok Sabha members of the party backed Shinde, which translated to 73% of the total votes polled in the 2019 general elections. “The application of this test in the legislative wing of the Shiv Sena has given a clear answer as to which faction is enjoying majority support, the application of this test in the organisational wing of the party is found to be yielding indeterminate and non-conclusive outcome,” the order said. “Therefore… there is a recognisable basis in the factual material of this dispute, to discern the outcome of legislative wing test as the fulcrum reflecting both the fact of the split and the majority,” the order added.
ECI said the “mutilated” condition of party constitutions create party structures that fail to inspire the commission’s confidence. As a result, the panel is forced to ignore the test of organisational strength despite being aware of its importance. “This seemingly unjust situation is often the creation of the party itself.” The EC order listed out four decisions. The first awarded the name and symbol to the Shinde group. The second said the name Balasahebanchi Shiv
Sena and the two-swords-and-ashield symbol, given to the Shinde faction in October, will be frozen. The third asked the Shinde faction to amend the 2018 constitution of the party in line with the 1951 Representation of the Peoples Act and conform to internal democracy. The fourth said the Thackeray faction will be allowed to use the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the flaming torch symbol until the completion of the upcoming bypolls on February 26. The ECI decision marks the latest twist in the protracted political tussle that began last June, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance — comprising the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress — suffered a shock loss in the legislative council polls, its second defeat in a week after the Rajya Sabha elections.
On Friday evening, in a western suburb of Mumbai, several women were gathered at a playground. Decked up in their festive sarees, they were heading for the haldi-kumkum ceremony organised by an MLA from the Shinde camp of the Shiv Sena. As the event was to begin, news came in that the Election Commission of India had allotted the Shiv Sena name and the symbol of bow and arrow to the Eknath Shinde-led faction. “This is the real Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena,” announced a local leader in the cacophony of celebratory crackers.
The Election Commission’s decision of allotting the name and the symbol of Shiv Sena to Eknath Shinde’s faction and disassociating the idea of the Shiv Sena from the Thackeray family will have far reaching ramifications for what is left of the Uddhav-led party. It will also set the tone for electoral politics in the city, state and the perhaps even country in 2024.
The name Shiv Sena or the ‘Army of Shivaji’ was suggested by Bal Thackeray’s father Prabodhankar Thackeray, a noted social reformer in Maharashtra. It carefully used the figure of Shivaji symbolising Maratha pride to denote its strongly nativist and seemingly nationalist cause. Shiv Sena, launched in 1966, was built on an existing socio-cultural plank that the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement had already created in Mumbai. It aimed to fight for the rights of Maharashtrians in the city which struck a chord especially amongst the middle-class Marathi youth who believed that injustice meted out by “outsiders” needed to be countered.
Afraid that the Sena might be banned during the Emergency, Bal Thackeray decided to officially register the organisation as a political party in 1976 as per the norms of the ECI and a constitution of the party was written for the first time. It’s subsequent success in the Lok Sabha elections held in November 1989 helped the party gain the status of a recognised state party. It also got an official party symbolthe Bow and Arrow.
Over the last six decades, Shiv Sena grew from a movement into a properlyorganised political party and a major political force in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena’s journey has largely rested on the creation of cultural symbols that appeal the ordinary Marathi-speaking
This is a victory for democracy. Our country runs as per constitution. Our government is constitutional. This decision is done on merit and I thank the Election Commission EKNATH SHINDE,
Shiv Sena (UBT):
BJP: