EC asks Team Thackeray to respond to Shinde group’s claim on bow & arrow symbol

The Election Commission on Friday asked the Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray to respond by a day on Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde group’s claim on the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol.

The Shinde-led faction has submitted a memorandum seeking allocation of the symbol with the Andheri East assembly bypoll set to be held on November 3. The commission asked Thackeray to furnish comments along with requisite documents latest by 2pm on October 8.

“In case no reply is received, the Commission will take appropriate action in the matter accordingly,” the Commission said.

The Commission wrote to Thackeray that the Shinde faction had staked claim to the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol on October 4. The Andheri East bypoll was notified earlier in the day. Shinde had engineered a rebellion in the Sena in June leading to the fall of the Thackeray-led government. He was named chief minister on June 30 with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

Meanwhile, Sena leader Anil Desai, who is close to Thackeray, said the party would respond to the commission within the stipulated time.

Desai met commission officials earlier in the day to submit documents in connection with a separate matter where the Shinde faction had claimed to be the “real Shiv Sena”, citing support of majority members of the Lok Sabha and the state assembly.

The fresh claim to the ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol by the Shinde faction is seen as an attempt to deny its use by the Thackeray group which has decided to field Rutuja Latke, the widow of MLA Ramesh Latke, for the bypoll.

The BJP, an ally of the Shinde faction, has decided to field Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), for the bypoll.

The Congress and the NCP have decided to support the candidate of the Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, their coalition partner in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

The Andheri East bypoll is the first election after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June, and is considered by political analysts as a precursor to settling of claims by Shinde and Thackeray in their battle to the “real Shiv Sena” claim.