“Shiv Sena” Party Name, Symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be Retained by Eknath Shinde Group

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 17th Feb. The Eknath Shinde faction will retain the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow,” announced the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday.

Notably, since Shinde (current Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year, both factions of the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the party’s bow and arrow symbol.

The Shiv Sena party’s current constitution, according to the Commission, is undemocratic. It has been mutilated in order to appoint people from a coterie as office bearers in an undemocratic manner with no election at all. Such party structures do not inspire trust.

In a landmark decision with far-reaching implications for political parties and their conduct, ECI advised all political parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and to regularly disclose aspects of their inner party functioning on their respective websites, such as organizational details, election holdings, a copy of the Constitution, and a list of office bearers.

“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.

“The Constitution of SS amended in 2018 is not given to ECI. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by the Late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission,” the ECI added.

The ECI observed that the undemocratic norms of the original Constitution of Shiv Sena, which was not accepted by the Commission in 1999 have been brought back in a surreptitious manner further making the party akin to a fiefdom.

The Rashtriya Karyakarini is a body which is ‘elected’ by a largely ‘appointed’ Pratinidhi Sabha. The Commission conveyed to Shiv Sena in the year 1999 on the draft amendments when Bala Saheb was made leader of Sena for life: “To put in a nutshell, the party Constitution envisages the President nominating the Electoral College that is to elect him. Therefore, any reliance on the ‘”Test of Party Constitution”‘ for determining the present dispute case will be undemocratic and catalytic in spreading such practices across parties.

The ECI said that the 2018 Constitution of SS, by way of its plain reading on the vital axis of remedy/modality of dissent, stifles all options of the rival group(s) in its very formulation. It confers widespread powers of making various organisational appointments on a single person.

“The 40 MLAs, supporting the Shinde faction, garnered 36,57327 votes out of a total of 47,82440 votes i.e ~76 per cent of votes polled in favour of 55 winning MLAs in the GA to the LA 19. This contrasts with 11,25113 votes garnered by 15 MLAs whose support is claimed by the Uddhav Thakre faction i.e ~ 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of winning 55 MLAs,” it said.

Further, as against 90,49,789, total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the General election to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra in 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 40 MLAs supporting the Shinde faction come to ~40 per cent whereas votes polled by 15 MLAs supporting the Uddhav Thakre faction come to ~12 per cent of total votes, the Commission said.

“The 13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction garnered 74,88,634 votes out of a total of 1,02,45143 votes i.e ~73 per cent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs in the general election to the Lok Sabha, 2019. This contrasts with 27,56,509 votes garnered by 5 MPs supporting Uddhav Thakre faction (although claimed 6 and affidavits filed by only 4) i.e ~ 27 per cent of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs,” the Commission further stated.

Further, as against 1,25,89064, the total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha election, 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction come to ~59 per cent whereas votes polled by 5 MPs (claimed 6 whereas affidavits of only 4) supporting the Uddhav Thakre faction comes to ~22 per cent, the Commission added.

Both Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted written statements to the Election Commission last month in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol.

The ECI had frozen the Shiv Sena’s bow and arrow symbol and assigned the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde faction, while the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was assigned to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.

Uddhav Thackeray filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court in November last year, challenging the ECI’s decision to freeze the election symbol of the bow and arrow. The court, however, dismissed the plea.

Notably, the EC issued an interim order stating that neither of the two groups would be permitted to use the “Bow and Arrow” symbol reserved for the “Shiv Sena” in the Andheri East bypolls.

The Commission’s decision came amid an ongoing symbol war between the Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde camps.