The ECI on Tuesday finally accepted the ‘two swords and a shield’ symbol submitted by the Eknath Shinde faction.
The ECI on Tuesday finally accepted the ‘two swords and a shield’ symbol submitted by the Eknath Shinde faction.
With Andheri East by-poll turning to be a bitter flashpoint for the rival Sena factions, the Uddhav Thackeray-led led Sena group has now accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of showing an alleged ‘bias’ towards the ruling Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in recent the allocation of party symbols and names.
In a four-page letter to the poll body from the Thackeray camp now known as the ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’, the latter has charged the ECI of ‘revealing’ its strategy to the Shinde camp (now called ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’) by uploading a copy of a confidential letter sent by the Uddhav camp containing the possible party name and symbol alternatives to be used in the upcoming Andheri East by-election even before Mr. Shinde’s group had submitted his own list.
In the letter, which ticks of the ECI on 12 points, the Thackeray faction has claimed that the ECI’s “intentionally uploading” of their confidential letter on the website helped the Shinde group to decode its strategy.
“Otherwise, how did the Shinde group give the same [party symbol and name] options as us? Further, to the surprise of the respondent [Thackeray faction], it was seen that the Hon’ble Commission thereafter deleted this letter from its website. Needless to say, no letter of the petitioner [Shinde group] stating his preference of symbols and names was ever uploaded on the [ECI] website,” said the letter, which was handed to the ECI by the Thackeray group’s lawyer.
Earlier this week on Monday, after hectic deliberation, the ECI had allotted the ‘flaming torch’ ( mashaal) symbol to the Thackeray faction while rejecting the Shinde group’s proposed symbols alternatives – of which two, the ‘trident’ and the ‘rising sun’ had been submitted by the Thackeray camp as well.
The ECI on Tuesday finally accepted the ‘two swords and a shield’ symbol submitted by the Eknath Shinde faction.
While the poll body had allotted new faction names for the rival camps, one of the proposed names – Shivsena (Balasaheb Thackeray), which had first been submitted by the Thackeray group, was later submitted by the Shinde camp as well.
The letter further alleged that the Shinde camp had “tellingly” given the first choice of party name as submitted by the Thackeray group to the ECI, as well as the first and second choices of party symbol given by them.
Given the overlap, this led to the ECI effectively not allotting to the Thackeray camp its first choice of party name and prime preferences for the party symbol, alleged the letter.
The letter has also sought an assurance from the ECI that such ‘biases’ in favour of the Eknath Shinde faction will not continue in the future and that both groups will be given the same preference.
Thackeray group loyalist, MP Anil Desai remarked that it was incredible that the Shinde faction always got what they want, while casting aspersions on the ‘neutrality’ of the ECI.
In a retort to the Thackeray faction following its charges against the ECI, Shambhuraje Desai, an MLA from the Shinde group, said that when a decision wnet in favour of the Thackeray group, then the latter proclaimed that all systems and institutions were fine.
‘However, when any decision went against them, then they loudly keep accusing others while alleging that institutions are prejudiced to towards them. The ECI always works within the scope of its Constitutional authority…there is no truth in the their [Thackeray group’s] allegations,” Mr. Shambhuraje Desai said.
