SC to hear Uddhav's plea against EC's order on Shiv Sena name, symbol tomorrow at 3.30 pm

The Election Commission on Friday had recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered the allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

The Supreme Court will take up Uddhav Thackeray's plea challenging the Election Commission (EC) order allotting the Shiv Sena party name and symbol to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction on Wednesday at 3.30 pm.

Appearing for Uddhav faction, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said, "If the EC order is not stayed then they will take over the symbol, the bank accounts and more disqualifications (will happen). Please list it at the earliest date."

Responding to the plea, Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud, said, "We will hear it tomorrow at 3:30 pm. The reason we are not taking up in the morning is because we don't want other colleagues to be held up."

In its petition, the Uddhav faction has sought a stay on the EC order as interim relief.

It challenged the "factual" mistakes in the poll body's order.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has further accused the poll body of failing to discharge its duty as a neutral arbiter. They also alleged that the EC acted in a manner that undermines its constitutional status.

What did the Election Commission do?

The Election Commission on Friday had recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered the allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly by-polls in the state.

The Commission said it applied the principles of the 'Test of party Constitution' and the 'Test of Majority' while finalising the order.

The Commission said MLAs backing 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.