Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde Updates Twitter DP with Shiv Sena's 'Bow and Arrow' After Election Commission Decision on Party Name and Symbol

Mumbai, February 17: After Election Commmission's decision favouring his faction, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday updated his display picture on Twitter with Shiv Sena's 'bow and arrow' symbol as the picture. This comes after the Election 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.

"It is the victory of the ideologies of Balasaheb and Anand Dighe, of our workers, MPs, MLAs, public representatives and lakhs of Shiv Sainiks. It is victory of democracy. This country runs on the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar. We formed our government on the basis of that Constitution. The EC order that came today is on the basis of merit. I express my gratitude to the Election Commission," Shinde told reporters here.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis congratulated Shinde on retaining the party symbol and said his faction is the true "Shiv Sena" that follows the principles of Balasaheb Thackeray. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-Led Faction Gets Shiv Sena Party Name, Bow and Arrow Symbol.

"The Shiv Sena that walks on ideologies of Balasaheb Thackeray - Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena has become the original Shiv Sena. My greetings to him. We were confident from day 1 because if you look at EC's earlier orders on different parties, they were similar decisions," Fadnavis said.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said his faction - Shiv Sena (UBT) would move to the Supreme court against the Election Commission's decision.

"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 said. "They should first understand Balasaheb. They have come to know that 'Modi' name does not work in Maharashtra 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," he added.

The Election Commission of India on Friday announced that the party name "Shiv Sena" and the symbol "Bow and Arrow" will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction. 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. Victory of Balasaheb Thackeray's Ideology: CM Eknath Shinde on Election Commission's.

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

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. Election Commission's Shiv Sena Order on Expected Lines, Uddhav Thackeray Should Move Appropriate Court Against It, Says Congress Leader Ashok Chavan.

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".

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