Samata Party raises objection against Uddhav's mashaal symbol

New Delhi, Oct 12: Samata Party raised objection against 'flaming torch' (mashaal) election symbol allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena. According to reports, the party has claimed that Uddhav Thackeray's torch looks similar to their symbol.

In an order on the dispute in the Shiv Sena, the Election Commission allotted 'ShivSena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray' as the party name for the Thackeray faction, and 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena' (Balasaheb's Shiv Sena) as the name for the Eknath Shinde group of the party.

'Mashal' was Samata Party's national symbol from 1994 to 2014. The Uddhav faction's third option, a flaming torch, was not on EC's list of free symbols. The EC order noted that the flaming was once allocated to the Samata Party, which was derecognised in 2004, The poll watchdog first issued an order declaring it as a free symbol and then allocated it to the Uddhav faction.

The Election Commission had frozen the Sena's bow and arrow symbol on October 8, ahead of the November 3 by-election in the Andheri East Assembly seat, and told the two factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde to give their preferences for new names and symbols as an interim measure.

The two factions also gave the same symbols, Trishul (Trident) and Rising Sun, as their first two preferences for a party symbol.

The EC underlined that the Trishul and Rising Sun, apart from having been claimed by both fractions, could not be allocated because the Trishul was a religious symbol and the Rising Sun was already allocated to Tamil Nadu's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).