Maharashtra’s 2 Shiv Senas get new names, Uddhav’s party symbol is flaming torch

Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena will be called the ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’ and the rival faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde will be ‘Balasahebanchi Shivsena’ for the upcoming by-elections, the Election Commission said in separate orders on interim names of the two parties on Monday.

The commission last week froze the Shiv Sena’s name and symbol and told the two factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to give their preferences for new names and symbols as an interim measure.

In their requests, both factions asked EC to let them call their party, Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray). The commission, comprising chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey, rejected the request, pointing out that this was the first preference of both factions.

The two factions were allowed the use of the names that they had presented as their second options: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) for the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction and ‘Balasahebanchi Shivsena for the Eknath Shinde faction.

The two factions also gave the same symbols, Trishul (Trident) and Rising Sun, as their first two preferences for a party symbol.

The EC underlined that the Trishul and Rising Sun, apart from having been claimed by both fractions, could not be allocated because the Trishul was a religious symbol and the Rising Sun was already allocated to Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

The Uddhav faction’s third option, a flaming torch, was not on EC’s list of free symbols. The EC order noted that the flaming was once allocated to the Samata Party, which was derecognised in 2004, The poll watchdog first issued an order declaring it as a free symbol and then allocated it to the Uddhav faction.

The Shinde faction’s third choice for an election symbol was a Gadha (mace). It was rejected too because it was a religious symbol. The Maharashtra chief minister has been told to come back with a fresh list of preferences for a party symbol by 10am on Tuesday.

To be sure, the interim name and party symbols of the two Sena factions are essentially for interim use for the upcoming Andheri East bypoll, until the Commission takes a final decision on the Shiv Sena name and its party symbol.

The commission said the interim order was necessary to address the statutory spaces generated by the schedule of by-elections notified on October 3.

“In order to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests and going by the past precedence, the commission hereby makes the following interim order to cover the purpose of the current by-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute,” the 12-page interim order by the EC said.

EC added the interim order will continue “till the final determination of the dispute”. The last date for filing nominations for the November 3 bypoll is October 14. The Andheri East constituency was left vacant after the demise of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May.

“The Commission is duty bound to ensure that all electoral steps of the bye-election are free of any confusion and contradiction and thus its next step are necessarily agnostic to the possibility of either of the faction participating in the poll,” the interim order said.

The commission earlier asked the rival groups to submit documentary proof on legislative and organisational support by August 8 to back claims that they should inherit the Sena’s original name and symbol. The deadline was extended to October 7 after the request of the Thackeray faction. On October 4, the Shinde faction moved the Election Commission, seeking the allocation of the bow and arrow poll symbol in view of the Andheri East assembly by-election.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction submitted its response to the claim on Saturday and sought four more weeks to carefully scrutinise the documentation submitted by the rival faction.

The submitted documents include affidavits from party office bearers, details of primary membership, pledges of loyalty by 250,000 functionaries, a resolution of the party national executive on January 23, 2018, which appointed Thackeray as the national president till 2023, and the party’s written constitution that grants absolute power to the party president.

The Shiv Sena was registered as a political party in 1968, two years after it was founded. It has, in the past, contested elections on different symbols such as the railway engine, palm trees and a sword and shield. In 1989, four Shiv Sena candidates were elected to the Lok Sabha and that year, it was given the bow-and-arrow symbol. The 1990 Maharashtra assembly polls were the first to be contested by the party using the bow-and-arrow symbol. The Shiv Sena secured a major political opening in these elections; its numbers rose from one MLA in 1985 to 52 in 1990.