A day after the Election Commission (EC) temporarily barred Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde rival groups from using the Shiv Sena name or its bow and arrow poll symbol, the Uddhav-led faction on Sunday wrote to the poll body giving three options as their preference for a election symbol ahead of the Andheri East Assembly bypoll scheduled on November 3. The options are trishul (trident), rising sun and mashaal. The Uddhav-led Shiv Sena has suggested three names — ‘Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray)’, ‘Shiv Sena (Prabodhankar Thackeray)’ or ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’— for its use.
According to sources, Shiv Sena (Balasaheb Thackeray) is the first choice for the name and ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) is the second pick. It has asked for trident as its first choice of symbol, and the rising sun as the second option. Interestingly, as per the latest list of free symbols published on the website of the EC in September last year, none of the preferences of the Uddhav-led Sena is available at the moment.
However, in contrast to the Uddhav-led faction, the Eknath Shinde-led group has not prepared any list of alternate party symbols. Leaders of the Shinde group said they would be staking claim to the bow and arrow symbol.
Both the factions are fighting over the claim of ‘real-Shiv Sena’ and the election symbol ‘bow and arrow’ since the surprising coup by Eknath Shinde and other MLAs led to a split in the party and the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government in Maharashtra.
The EC had on Saturday barred the Shiv Sena factions led by former Chief Minister Uddhav and present Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol bow and arrow in the Andheri East Assembly bypoll.
In an interim order over claims by the rival factions for control of the organisation, the commission asked them to suggest by Monday three different name choices and also as many free symbols for allocation to their respective groups.
In a related development, the Mumbai Police has registered an FIR against unidentified persons on charges of cheating and forgery after recovering more than 4,500 affidavits being prepared in support of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction.
The bypoll to the Andheri East Assembly seat in suburban Mumbai has been necessitated due to the death of incumbent Sena MLA Ramesh Latke.
The Congress and the NCP have decided to support Ramesh Latke’s wife Rujuta Latke, the candidate of the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena, their coalition partner in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).