Poll body's big order on Shiv Sena's symbol amid claims of rival factions

 Poll body's big order on Shiv Sena's symbol amid claims of rival factions

The Uddhav Thackeray faction will now have to use a different name and symbol in the by-elections to be held in Mumbai's Andheri East.

Mumbai:

The Election Commission on Saturday barred Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena factions from using the party's 'bow and arrow' symbol in the upcoming elections. The decision comes four months after Eknath Shinde took the Shiv Sena's numbers in the Maharashtra assembly to replace Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister.

According to the interim order of the Election Commission, both the groups will now have to choose new names. They will be allocated different symbols, which they can choose from a list of available free symbols.

Both the factions will now have to use different names and symbols in the by-elections to be held in Mumbai's Andheri East.

The commission had earlier asked rival groups to submit documentary evidence on legislative and organizational support by August 8 to support their claims.

The deadline was extended to October 7 following a request from the Thackeray faction. In view of the Andheri East assembly by-polls notified on Friday, the Shinde faction had approached the Election Commission on October 4, seeking allotment of election symbols.

The Thackeray faction had on Saturday given its response to the claim and sought four more weeks to carefully go through the documents submitted by the rival faction.

Since the split in June, both the factions have been accusing each other of tarnishing the legacy of Bal Thackeray.

At this week's big Dussehra meeting, Mr. Shinde said: "Do you have any moral right to stand there and speak? You used Shiv Sainiks for your personal reasons and went ahead with Congress and NCP... Balasaheb Thackeray The government used to run the remote control and you gave this remote control to the NCP."

Mr Thackeray, who held another rally at the traditional site of Shivaji Park, alleged that Mr Shinde was a "traitor" who is trying to control the party out of "greed".