Election Commission recognises Eknath Shinde faction as Shiv Sena; allows them to retain Shiv Sena name and bow and arrow symbol

In a major victory for Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday recognised Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena and granted permission to them to use the name 'Shiv Sena' and the bow and arrow symbol for their party..The order was passed by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel on a plea by Shinde faction seeking decision on which is the real Shiv Sena - the Shinde camp or the Thackeray camp."The party name 'Shiv Sena' and the party symbol 'bow and arrow' will be retained by the petitioner faction," the order said.The ECI passed the following directions:- The party name "Shiv Sena" and the party symbol "Bow and Arrow" will be retained by the petitioner faction;- The name of "Balasahebanchi ShivSena" and symbol of "Two Swords and Shield", which was allotted to the petitioner by way of the interim order dated October 11, 22 in this dispute case will henceforth be frozen with immediate effect and will not be used;- The petitioner is directed to amend the 2018- Constitution of the party in line with section 29 A of the RP Act, 1951 and extant guidelines issued by the Commission on registration of political parties inter-alia conforming to internal democracy;- In view of the ongoing bye-elections for 205- Chinchwad, and 215- Kasba Peth of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, the respondent faction, which was allotted the name of "Shivsena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)" and symbol of "Flaming Torch as per the interim order dated October 10, 22 of the Commission in this dispute case, is hereby allowed to retain the said name and the symbol till completion of the said bye-elections. .The ECI had earlier passed an interim order in October last year, restraining both Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde camps from using the 'Shiv Sena' party name and the bow and arrow symbol until the poll body decides which among the two rival factions can actually lay claim to the party name and symbol.In its final order of Friday, the ECI relied upon the strength of the legislative wing of the party to arrive at its decision instead of the relying on test of organisational wing.This, the ECI said, was because though it attempted to apply the test of organisational wing, it could not come to any satisfactory conclusion because the latest Constitution of the party was not on record. "The basis of any organisational composition is the Constitution. Unfortunately, the Constitution which is being professed is not the one record of the Commission. The Commission's record shows 1999 Constitution whereas the Constitution being alluded to is that of 2018. Non-communication of both material change of amendment, and of thr equally important process of amendment in the Constitution of the party is non-compliant with the conditions of registration," the order said.Thus, though both factions presented competing claims as regards their organistional numbers, the Commission could not ascertain the exact numbers due to the confusion and lack of clarity in the numbers presented by both sides as also the confusion surrounding the changes to the Constitution. "The respective claims of numerical majority in organisational wing by both factions is not satisfactory, the ECI underlined. "Therefore, by the time we reached the stage of assessing the varying and competing claims of exact numbers of support of either group, the foundational basis of holding organisational aspects as fundamental or valuable to para 15 disputes is shaken in the present case," the poll body stated.Hence, it proceeded to rely on the test of majority in the legislative wing. The Shinde faction was noted to have 40 MLAs as against the Thackeray faction's 15 MLAs in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. These 40 MLAs accounted for 76 percent of the total votes polled in favour of all the 55 MLAs who had contested the 2019 elections under the Shiv Sena name and symbol, the ECI said.Thackeray's 15 MLAs accounted for only 23.5 percent of the votes. Likewise, in the Lok Sabha too, out of 18 Members of Parliament, 13 were in support of Shinde faction, while only 5 were in support of Thackeray faction, the ECI noted.Hence, based on the above, the ECI ruled in favour of Shinde faction and allowed it to retain Shiv Sena name and the bow and arrow symbol. .Senior Advocates Mahesh Jethmalani, Maninder Singh, Siddharth Bhatnagar and Malvika Trivedi with Advocates Chirag Shah, Utsav Trivedi, Manini Roy and Himanshu Sachdeva appeared for Eknath Shinde faction. Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Devadatt Kamat appeared for Uddhav Thackeray faction. .[Read Order]