The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave permission to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the hearing of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction’s plea seeking recognition as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and allocation of the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to it.
A constitution bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and PS Narasimha has rejected the petition of the Uddhav Thackeray-led group seeking to restrain the poll body from deciding the Shinde faction’s claim over the “original” Shiv Sena.
“We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission,” the bench said.
Speaking to the media, Shiv Sena MP (Thackeray faction) Arvind Sawant said, “We respect the Supreme Court’s decision. It has said ECI can give its decision. It’s not a question of setback. As for disqualification, the case will continue in the court”.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told News18, “We have to go through what the SC has said. We have set procedures and laid down procedures it has to go through test of majority.”
Both team Uddhav and team Shinde have fought tooth and nail to claim their rights over the party symbol with both factions claiming to be the ‘real’ Shiv Sena. The two factions have also seen several of their camp members switch sides ever since Shinde was sworn in as the CM of Maharashtra and Devendra Fadnavis as his Deputy on June 30. Notably, Shinde faction claims the support of 41 MLAs to demand the use of the Sena’s symbol.
With inputs from News18
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