The Shiv Sena symbol was claimed by the party’s rival factions led by Shinde and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.
As of now, the two factions were using separate party names and symbols allotted to them after the EC ‘froze’ the Shiv Sena name and party symbol until the dispute was decided by it.
In its order, the Election Commission said that Shiv Sena’s constitution, amended in 2018, was not on record of poll panel.
“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 Constitution of SS amended in 2018 is not given to ECI. Amendments had undone the act of introducing democratic norms in the Party Constitution of 1999, brought by the Late Balasaheb Thackeray at the insistence of the Commission,” the ECI added.
Shinde hailed Election Commission’s decision and described it as victory of Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology.
“I thank Election Commission. Majority counts in democracy. This is the victory of Balasaheb’s legacy. Ours is the true Shiv Sena,” he said.
“We set up the government in Maharashtra (with BJP) last year keeping in mind thoughts of Balasaheb,” Shinde said.
The Election 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.
Meanwhile, Uddhav slammed EC’s decision and said the move was “dangeroud for democracy” adding that their faction will approach the Supreme Court.
“I had said that Election Commission shouldn’t give decision before the Superme Court’s verdict. If party’s existence is decided based on number of MLAs & MPs, any capitalist can purchase MLA, MP and become a chief minister,” Uddhav said.
“We will surely go to the Supreme Court against this EC order. We are sure that the SC will set aside this order and that the 16 MLAs will be disqualified by top court,” he added.
Watch In major setback for Uddhav Thackeray, EC recognises Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena
