‘Shiv Sena’ party name, ‘Bow and Arrow’ symbol to be retained by Eknath Shinde faction: ECI

The Election Commission of India on Friday announced that the name of the party “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction. Notably, both factions of the party, Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray, have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde revolted against Thackeray last year.

The ECI observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic. It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

In a statement, the ECI said, “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 further added that, “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 Commission furthermore added that the draft was amended when Bala Saheb was made leader of party for life. “To put in a nutshell, the party Constitution envisages the President nominating the Electoral College that is to elect him. Therefore, any reliance on the ‘”Test of Party Constitution”‘ for determining the present dispute case will be undemocratic and catalytic in spreading such practices across parties.”

The Commission conveyed that the 2018 Constitution of the party by way of its plain reading on the vital axis of remedy, stifles all options of the vital group in its very formulation.

Last month, both factions of SS, the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.

The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena while allotting the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November, 2022.

The Commission’s ruling had come amid the ongoing symbol war between the Uddhav Thackeray camp and rival Eknath Shinde camp.