Shinde faction is the 'real Shiv Sena' with 'bow & arrow' symbol: EC

EC observed that the constitution of Shiv Sena amended in 2018 is not given to Election Commission of India.

The Election Commission of India on Friday ordered that the party name "Shiv Sena" and the party symbol "Bow and Arrow" will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction.

The Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order.

The poll body observed that the current Constitution of the Shiv Sena 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.

EC observed that the constitution of Shiv Sena amended in 2018 is not given to Election Commission of India. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by Late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission.

The EC also 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 EC observed 40 MLAs, supporting the Shinde faction, garnered 36,57,327 votes out of total 47,82,440 votes i.e ~76% of votes polled in favour of 55 winning MLAs. This contrasts with 11,25,113 votes garnered by 15 MLAs whose support is claimed by the Thackeray faction.

As against 90,49,789, total votes polled by Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Assembly election in 2019 (including the losing candidates), votes polled by 40 MLAs supporting the petitioner come to ~40 % whereas votes polled by 15 MLAs supporting the Respondents come to ~12% of total votes.

13 MPs supporting the Shinde faction garnered 74,88,634 votes out of total 1,02,45143 votes i.e ~73% of votes polled in favor of 18 MPs in Lok Sabha polls 2019. This contrasts with 27,56,509 votes garnered by 5 MPs supporting Thackeray faction i.e ~ 27% of votes polled in favour of 18 MPs.

The commission noted 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.

The Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly bypolls in the state.

The Election Commission had barred the Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol in the Andheri East assembly bypoll.