Shiv Sena factions get new names; ‘flaming torch’ poll symbol for Uddhav faction

The Election Fee on Monday allotted ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election image to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, rejecting their declare to the ‘Trishul’ citing non secular connotation.

In an order on the dispute within the Shiv Sena, the Election Fee allotted ‘ShivSena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ because the get together identify for the Thackeray faction, and ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ (Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena) because the identify for the Eknath Shinde group of the get together.

The Fee additionally requested the Shinde faction to submit a recent checklist of three symbols by 10 am on Tuesday.

The Thackeray faction welcomed the Fee order and commenced publicising its new identify and image on the get together’s social media handles.

“We’re blissful that the three names that matter to us most Uddhav ji, Balasaheb and Thackeray – are retained within the new identify,” Thackeray loyalist and former Maharashtra minister Bhaskar Jadhav mentioned.

Earlier Monday, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction had approached the Delhi Excessive Courtroom looking for quashing of the October 8 Election Fee order freezing the get together identify and election image of ‘bow and arrow’.

The EC had mentioned the interim order will proceed “until the ultimate willpower of the dispute”.

Since, the final date for submitting nominations for the November 3 by-election within the Andheri East Meeting seat is October 14, if the 2 factions resolve to contest they must use the brand new symbols.

The Fee additionally rejected ‘Trishul’ (trident) and rising ‘Gada’ (mace) as election symbols claimed by the 2 factions of the Shiv Sena, citing their non secular connotation.

It additionally identified that the ‘Rising Solar’ election image sought by each factions was reserved for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is learnt to have taken a tricky stand towards the allocation of symbols with non secular connotations to political events.

The Fee famous that the ‘flaming torch’ image was earlier allotted to the Samata Get together, which was derecognised in 2004. The Fee mentioned it had determined to checklist the ‘flaming torch’ as a ‘free image’ following the request from the Thackeray faction.

The rival factions of Shiv Sena had each claimed ‘Trishul’ and ‘Rising Solar’ as election symbols. The rival factions had additionally listed ‘Shiv Sena – Balasaheb Thackeray’ as their first selection for the get together identify.

Group Thackeray leaders Vinayak Raut and Anil Desai have been confabulating with attorneys within the nationwide capital on the get together’s authorized methods because the Delhi Excessive Courtroom was more likely to checklist the petition difficult the freezing of get together identify and image for listening to later this week.

The Fee had barred each the factions from utilizing the identify ‘Shiv Sena’ and the election image ‘bow and arrow’ as a way to place the rival teams on a fair keel and to guard their rights and pursuits forward of the Andheri East meeting bypolls.

Shinde had rebelled towards Thackeray’s management, claiming the assist of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs and 12 of its 18 members within the Lok Sabha.

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