In Sena vs Sena battle who will get to keep the party’s symbol

New Delhi, Jun 27: The Maharastra political battle has reached the Supreme Court. Shiv Sena rebel Eknath Shinde and his MLAs have filed two petitions in the Supreme Court.

The petitions challenge the appointment of Ajay Choudhari by removing Shinde as the Leader of the Legislature Party in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. The second petition relates to the disqualification notices sent to the 16 rebels by the Deputy Speaker of the assembly Narhari Zirwal. The petitions that also seek protection for the families of the MLAs will come up before a Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice J B Pardiwala.

Senior counsel Harish Salve will appear for the Shinde faction while the deputy speaker will be represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal. Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

While the court is likely to hear the petitions today the question is which faction will get to keep the Shiv Sena's symbol.

Shinde does have the numbers to dodge the anti-defection law, but that would not be enough for him to get the party symbol which is a bow and arrow. The anti-defection law protects the rebel legislators as long as they merge with another party.

If the Shiv Sena splits then the faction that would get the symbol will not just depend on the number of MLAs each side has. It would depend on the other MLAs including Members of Parliament and officer bears of the party.

It would be upon the Election Commission of India to decide on which faction is the original party. The Election Commission will take into account past precedents and which way maximum lawmakers and office bearers would lean.

Both sides will present their facts before the Election Commission and if not satisfied they can approach the Supreme Court. The opinion of the Shiv Sainiks would also matter in such a scenario.