‘ShivSena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ vs ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’: Sena factions get new names; Thackeray gets ‘flaming torch’ poll symbol

The Election Commission on Monday allotted ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, rejecting their assert to the ‘Trishul’ citing spiritual connotation.

In an order on the dispute in the Shiv Sena, the Election Fee allotted ‘ShivSena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ as the party name for the Thackeray faction, and ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ (Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena) as the identify for the Eknath Shinde team of the party.

The Fee also requested the Shinde faction to post a fresh list of three symbols by 10 am on Tuesday.

The Thackeray faction welcomed the Fee get and began publicising its new name and symbol on the party’s social media handles.

“We are delighted that the 3 names that matter to us most -Uddhav ji, Balasaheb and Thackeray – are retained in the new name,” Thackeray loyalist and former Maharashtra minister Bhaskar Jadhav claimed.

Previously Monday, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction had approached the Delhi Superior Court docket seeking quashing of the Oct 8 Election Fee get freezing the social gathering title and election symbol of ‘bow and arrow’.

The EC had reported the interim purchase will continue “till the final willpower of the dispute”.

Because, the very last day for submitting nominations for the November 3 by-election in the Andheri East Assembly seat is Oct 14, if the two factions determine to contest they will have to use the new symbols.

The Fee also rejected ‘Trishul’ (trident) and climbing ‘Gada’ (mace) as election symbols claimed by the two factions of the Shiv Sena, citing their religious connotation.

It also pointed out that the ‘Rising Sun’ election image sought by equally factions was reserved for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Main Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is learnt to have taken a rough stand towards the allocation of symbols with religious connotations to political get-togethers.

The Fee observed that the ‘flaming torch’ symbol was before allotted to the Samata Social gathering, which was derecognised in 2004. The Commission said it experienced determined to checklist the ‘flaming torch’ as a ‘free symbol’ adhering to the ask for from the Thackeray faction.

The rival factions of Shiv Sena experienced both equally claimed ‘Trishul’ and ‘Rising Sun’ as election symbols. The rival factions experienced also stated ‘Shiv Sena – Balasaheb Thackeray’ as their to start with preference for the party name.

Team Thackeray leaders Vinayak Raut and Anil Desai have been confabulating with attorneys in the countrywide money on the party’s authorized tactics as the Delhi Significant Courtroom was most likely to list the petition hard the freezing of bash name and image for hearing later this week.

The Fee had barred equally the factions from employing the identify ‘Shiv Sena’ and the election image ‘bow and arrow’ in get to location the rival teams on an even keel and to guard their rights and pursuits in advance of the Andheri East assembly bypolls.

Shinde had rebelled from Thackeray’s leadership, proclaiming the assistance of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs and 12 of its 18 members in the Lok Sabha.

Next Thackeray’s resignation as chief minister of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition, Shinde turned chief minister with the help of the BJP.