Eknath Shinde visits Balasaheb Thackeray memorial in Mumbai; pays floral tribute after ECI order

MUMBAI, (ANI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday visited Balasaheb Thackeray memorial in Mumbai and offered him a floral tribute after the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) announcement of the Shiv Sena name and symbol being retained by the Shinde faction.

The Commission on Friday ordered that the party name “Shiv Sena” and the party symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction.

Speaking to the reporters here, Shinde who spearheaded the revolt against Uddhav Thackeray last year to topple the MVA government in the state, said that the development has occurred due to the blessings of the founder of Shiv Sena Balasaheb Thackeray.

“All of this has happened with the blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray. We established the government with his blessings and we are taking forward his ideology. That is why we welcome this order by the EC,” he said.

Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year. The Commission observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic. It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

“The constitution of political parties ought to provide for free, fair and transparent elections to the posts of office bearers and a further free and fair procedure for the resolution of internal disputes. These procedures ought to be difficult to amend and should be amendable only after ensuring larger support of the organisational members for the same,” the ECI said.

Meanwhile, after suffering a huge setback, the former Maharashtra Chief Minister hit out at Eknath Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s face does not attract people in Maharashtra and the ruling alliance wants to earn political dividend in the name of Balasaheb Thackeray.

“They should first understand Balasaheb. They have come to know that ‘Modi’s face does not attract people in Maharashtra anymore so they have to put Balasaheb’s mask on their face for their own benefit. I had said that ECI should not give a decision before the SC verdict. If the party’s existence is decided based on the number of MLAs and MPs, any capitalist can purchase MLA, MP and become CM,” Uddhav Thackeray said at a press conference here. “They also should remember that when it was about Indira Gandhi, People decided to vote against her despite the fact that there was no alternative to her .. so in recent times also people may vote against this govt despite having no alternative,” he added.

“We don’t need to worry. Public is with us. We’ll go with a new symbol  and raise this Shiv Sena once again in the court of public,” Sanjay Raut said. He said his faction (Shiv Sena – UBT) would move to Supreme Court against the poll panel’s move.

“We will surely go to the Supreme Court against this EC order. We are sure that the SC will set aside this order and will disqualify the 16 MLAs,” Thackeray added. Last month, both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.

The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year. In November last year, Uddhav Thackeray had moved a writ plea in the Delhi High Court against the ECI decision to freeze Election Symbol of Bow and Arrow. However, the plea was dismissed by the court.

Notably, EC passed the interim order saying in Andheri East bypolls, neither of the two groups shall be permitted to use the symbol “bow and arrow”, reserved for “Shiv Sena”. (ANI)